THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 


THE  COLLECTION  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINIANA 

PRESENTED  BY 

Robert  B, 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00032703334 


This  book  must  not 


be  taken  from  the 
Library  building. 


No.  471 


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ihis  §oak 

I 

RESPECTFULLY    DEDICATED 

TO 

MISS    ELLA     V.     CONRAD, 

DAUGHTER    OF 

MY  OLD  FRIEND,  J.  M.  CONRAD, 

BY  THE    AUTHOK, 

WILLIAM    H.    WESSON. 

#^ 


"Calais-inoralt;" 


OR, 


FIFiniliS'GLEiWSlNmmOFREilGS. 


WM.  H.  WESSON, 

OF   CALAIS,    POWHATAN    COUNTY,    VIRGINIA. 


H^is  House,  imported  hy  the  Sug-uenots,  ivho  landed  beloiv 
I^iohmond  in  16^5.  91'he  bricks  glazed,  and  ivill  last  for- 
ever. Se  hopes  the  good  impressions  made  upon  the  minds 
of  readers  of  this  ^ook  may  he  as  lasting-  as  the  bricks  in 
the  house. 


PxVTRICK   KEENAN,    BOOK    PUBLISHER    AND    PRINTER, 

No.  1206  Main  Street. 

1882 


Copyright  secured  January  4th,  1882. 


Prospectus. 


I  have  a  manuscript ;  the  materials  1  have  been  gathering 
and  storing  for  the  past  fifty  years.  My  store-house  having 
three  doors  (the  e^^es,  the  moutli,  the  ears),  I  have  placed  a 
a  sign  over  each  entrance  selected  from  the  Bible. 

I  have  stood  before  Kings,  yea.  Queens — ladies,  not  mean 
men  and  women. 

The  1st. — "  Seest  thou  a  man  diligent  in  his  business,  he 
shall  stand  before  kings,  he  shall  not  stand  before  "  mean 
men." 

The  2d. — "  Be  not  among  wine-bibbers  and  riotous  eaters 
of  flesh,  for  the  Drunkard  and  the  Glutton  shall  surely  "come 
to  want." 

The  3d. — "  The  commandment  is  a  lamp,  and  the  law  is  a 
light,  to  keep  thee  from  evil." 

Inside  the  "  store-house"  another,  that  "  these  signs  are  all 
plain  to  him  that  understandeth.  and  right  to  those  "  that  find 
knowledge." 

I  claim  that  the  book  is  composed  of  true  stories,  which  in- 
telligently portray  and  prove  that  these  signs  are  literal,  not 
metaphorical,  and  that  each  of  my  stories  point  a  moral  as 
clearly  as  the  stories  of  romance  and  fiction. 

The  book  will  also  contain  a  number  of  things,  which  can 
be  found  in  no  other  book,  the  result  of  its  author's  own 
work  and  thoughts ;  besides  this,  without  any  special  aim 
at  "  King  Alcohol."  nevertheless,  he  is  often  hit,  and  comes 
out  at  least  severely  wounded. 

The  "  morale  "  of  the  book  is  moral. 

The  Paper,  the  Type,  the  Printing,  the  Binding,  the  En- 
graving, and  the  Author,  are  Virginia  productions. 


WILLIAM  H.  WESSON. 


Hoen  &.  Co.,  Engravers. 
Patrick  Keenan,  Printer. 
Randolph  &  English,  Binders. 
Richmond  Paper  M'f'g  Co. 


INTRODUCTION. 


T  is  no  easy  task,  in  this  clay  of  Books,  for  man 
or  woman  to  compose,  or  prepare,  or  write  a 
readable  book,  and  for  a  clod-hopper  to  attempt 
the  thing  is  a  high-flown  hyperbole,  but  as  the  sublime 
and  ridiculous  grow  so  near  together,  I  will  risk  the 
weather  rather  the  storm  of  public  criticism,  and  if  I 
do  not  succeed  in  making  a  readable  book,  but  succeed 
in  getting  the  money  of  the  green  subscribers,  it  will 
be  something.  At  any  rate,  they  shall  have  my  pro- 
file, autograph  and  photograph  on  the  first  pages. 
Then,  how  other  men  did  to  win  millions  ;  and  then, 
how  I  did  to  win  —  well,  a  few  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  and  a  large  *  *  *  notoriety  (that  is  not  a 
book).  And,  again,  to  read  and  write  some  things 
from  a  book  called  the  Volume  of  Nature  ;  and,  to  ex- 
tract "  wise  saws  "  from  other  books  which  do  not  lie 
about  as  thick  as  small  books  and  large  promises. 

At  any  rate,  the  labor  of  mind  and  body  expended 
on  this  volume  for  the  past  fifty  years,  if  (agricultur- 
ally) put  at  the  plow,  and  the  net  proceeds  put  at  in- 
terest, I  am  very  sure  would  have  produced  more  dol- 
lars and  cents  for  its  author  ;  but,  all  have  their  idio- 
syncracies,  and  he  has  his,  and  this  is  one  of  them. 
I   was  always  chary  of  promises,  particular  promises 


4  INTRODUCTION. 

to  pay,  and  adopted  the  one  of  Mr.  Eandolph,  "pay  as 
jou  go ;"  so,  if  my  subscribers  pay  me,  I  can  pay  the 
printer,  and  this  thing  will  be  easy.     I  am  now  so  old 
and  tough  that  neither  money  nor  ridicule  can  show  up 
my  blush ;  if  the  purchasers  do  not  get  worsted,  I  will 
take  it  w^ell  and  easy,  anything  that  may  come  or  be 
said  of  my  effort,  to  me,  of  this  new  business  in  my 
old  age;  and,  as  it  is  so  hard  to  "learn  old  dogs  new 
tricks,"  do  hope  that  my  patrons  and  critics  will  bear 
this  thing  in  mind,  and  when  they,  are  disposed  to 
bless,  curse  or  wound  my  vanitj^  with  pleasant  or  harsh 
words,  just  recollect  that  these  things  are  feathers,  and 
that  everything  gets  its  just  value  and  dues  after  a 
time.     And  so  of  this  book,  which,  were  it  without  a 
fault,  would  be  worthless,  and  a  thing  that  has  never 
yet  been  produced  by  man,  and  on  its  merits  alone  I 
place  it — to  rise  up,  or  go  down  into  that  den  which 
is  stored  to  repletion  with  unread  books;  surely,  I 
will  never  complain  at  either — admiration,  condemn- 
ation, or  damnation!    And  he  that   does  not  expect 
much  is  rarely  disappointed. 

I  await  the  Crape,  the  Funeral,  or  the  Red,  White 
and  Blue. 

WM.  n.  WESSON. 


Keys  to  Success, 


AX  is  like  a  sno^y-ball ;  leave  him  lying  in  idle- 
^  ness,  against  the  sunny  fence  of  prosperity,  and 
all  the  good  that  is  in  him  melts  like  butter,  but  kick 
him  around  and  he  gathers  strength  with  every  suc- 
cessive revolution  until  he  grows  into  an  avalanche. 
To  succeed  you  must  keep  moving. 

The  world-renowned  Rothchilds  ascribe  their  suc- 
cess to  the  following  rules:  Be  off-hand,  make  a  bar- 
gain at  once,  never  have  anything  to  do  with  an  un- 
lucky man  or  place,  be  cautious  and  bold. 

David  Richards,  the  celebrated  political  economist, 
had,  what  he  called,  his  three  golden  rules,  viz:  never 
refuse  an  opinion  when  you  can  get  it,  cut  short  your 
losses,  let  your  profits  run  on. 

John  Jacob  Astor,  wlien  requested  to  furnish  inci- 
dents of  his  life,  replied,  "  my  actions  must  make  my 
life." 

Stephen  Girard's  fundamental  maxim  was,  "  take 
care  of  the  cents,  the  dollars  will  take  care  of  them- 
selves." 

Robert  Bonner,  who  made  a  fortune  out  of  the  X. 
Y.  Ledger,  in  four  years,  attributes  his  success  entirely 
to  his  persistent,  repeated  and  generous  advertising. 

Phillips  said  "  Man}-  a  man  has  missed  being  a  great 
man  hj  splitting  into  two  middling  ones." 


6  KEYS    TO    SUCCESS. 

Amos  Lawrence,  when  asked  for  advice,  said : 
**  Young  man,  base  all  yom^  principle  on  right,  preserve 
yom'  integrity  of  character,  and  in  doing  this,  never 
reckon  the  cost." 

John  Freedley's  never  varying  motto  was  "  self  de- 
pendence, self  reliance."  He  says :  "  My  observations 
through  life  satisfies  me  that  at  least  nine-tenths  of 
those  successful  in  business  start  in  life  without  any 
reliance,  except  upon  their  own  heads  and  hands — hoe 
their  own  row  from  the  start." 

Nicholas  Longworth,  the  Cincinnati  millionaire, 
says  :  "  I  have  always  had  two  things  before  me — do 
what  3^ou  undertake  thoroughly ;  be  faithful  in  all  ac- 
cepted trusts." 

P.  T.  Barnum,  the  noted  exhibitor,  ascribes  bis  suc- 
cess in  accumulating  a  million  of  dollars,  in  ten  years, 
to  the  unlimited  use  of  printer's  ink. 

John  Eandolph  said,  "  Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  found 
the  *  philosopher's  stone  ;'   it  is,  'pay  as  you  go.'''' 

A.  T.  Stewart,  merchant  prince  of  is'ew  York,  re- 
marks, "no  abilities,  however  splendid,  can  command 
success  without  intense  labor  and  persevering  applica- 
tion." 

Everett — "The  world  estimates  men  by  their  suc- 
cess in  life,  and,  by  general  consent,  success  is  the  evi- 
dence of  superiority." 

Sir  Walter  Scott  and  Daniel  O'Connell,  at  a  late 
period  of  their  lives,  ascribed  their  success  in  the 
world,  principally,  to  their  wives.  Were  the  truth 
known,  their's  is  the  history  of  thousands. 


KEYS    TO    SUCCESS.  7 

Beecher — "There  is  nothing  like  a  fixed,  steady 
aim,  with  an  honorable  purpose ;  it  dignifies  your  na- 
ture and  insures  your  success." 

Chapin — *'  Half  the  failures  in  one's  life  arise  from 
pulling  in  one's  horse  when  he  is  leaping." 


MULTUM     IN     PaRVO. 


I^K  the  29th  day  of  June,  1813,  in  the  State  of 
^^  Virginia,  and  county  of  Brunswick,  a  ijiale  child 
was  born,  and  named  William.  His  father,  a  Cap- 
tain in  the  war  of  1812,  died  when  he  was  a  child, 
and  left  him,  by  will,  the  portion  he  might  get  of  his 
mother's  estate  at  her  death.  She  lived  ten  years, 
and  a  mortgage  given  on  a  portion  more  than  con- 
sumed the  whole.  "William's  mother  kept  house  for 
his  grandmother,  and  wove  cloth  every  ^^ear  to  pay 
for  his  schooling.  His  father's  empty  buckskin  pock- 
etbook  I  have  at  this  day,  as  good  as  new,  and  the  old 
receipts  paid  for  his  schooling  by  his  mother.  I  also 
have  her  country  made  work-basket,  over  seventy 
years  old.  She  was  very  industrious,  and  was  said  to 
have  been  one  of  the  best  house-keepers  in  the  county. 

William  was  thirteen  years  old  when  his  grand- 
mother died,  without  a  will,  and  he  did  not  get  any 
of  the  little  property  she  had  in  her  power  to  will 
away,  and  which  she  intended  for  him  ;  so  his  mother 
'was  left  with  only  a  few  dollars  of  her  own  savings, 
and  an  aunt  of  his,  on  a  visit  to  her  mother's,  from 
South  Carolina,  gave  him  five  dollars.  His  mother 
bought,  of  her  brother,  a  log  house  and  three  acres  of 
land,  on  the  old  Stage  Road,  for  thirty  dollars,  and 
moved  there  for  a  home,  bought  a  cow  and  a  steer, 


'*  CALAIS-MORALE."  9 

and  William  was  the  plougher,  carter  and  boy  of  all 
work.  lie  had  learned  remarkably,  while  at  the  acad- 
emy and  country  schools  which  he  attended,  and  had 
read  several  books  in  Greek  and  Latin,  and  having  the 
use  of  a  library,  offered  by  his  father's  friend,  a  law- 
yer, was  taking  a  historical  course  of  study,  to  lit  him 
for  a  teacher  or  lawyer,  as  providence  should  direct. 

His  grandmot4ier  w\as  a  member  of  the  Baptist 
Church.  His  mother,  although  decidedly  moral  and 
religious  by  inclination,  did  not  join  the  Church  until 
^le  was  sixty  years  of  age,  but  always  regularly  at- 
tended Church  at  ''  James  Square."  They  had  a  fam- 
ily horse,  named  "  Dance,"  which  carried  them  to 
Church,  in  a  springless  stick  "  gig,"  one  of  the  best 
vehicles  seen  at  the  Church.  In  those  days  there 
were  no  carriages,  buggies,  or  covered  riding  wagons 
in  that  section  of  country,  and  most  of  the  congrega- 
tion walked,  or  rode  on  horseback,  the  women  putting 
on  their  shoes  when  they  got  in  sight  of  the  Church. 
Little  William  always  sat  in  his  little  chair,  in  the 
front  of  the  "gig,"  and  listened  carefully  to  the  con- 
versation of  his  mother  and  grandmother,  on  the  way, 
as  Avell  as  to  what  the  preacher  said,  while  at 
Church. 

"William  was  the  only  w^hite  child  of  tlie  family,  his 
playmates  w^ere  two  negro  boys,  John  and  Ben.  His 
grandmother  had  about  one  dozen  slaves,  wdiose  labor 
produced  on  the  old  half  worn-out  farm,  enough  food 
and  clothes  for  all. 

The  tobacco  w\as  rolled  to  Petersburg,  in  hogsheads, 
with  wood  felloes  on  the  hoii^sheads  for  wdieels.  Eve- 
rything  for  family  use  \vas  made  on  the  place,  except 
iron,  salt,  sugar,  coffee,  and  a  few  condiments  ;  and, 


10  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

after  the  manager  and  taxes  were  paid,  any  surplus 
money  Avas  a  rarity. 

His  mother  was  never  idle,  and  used  economy  with- 
out meanness,  and  luxuries  without  extravagance,  and 
brought  up  William  to  speak  the  truth,  under  all  cir- 
cumstances, never  to  imitate  an  oath,  to  keep  no  bad 
company,  to  be  diligent  with  his  lessons  and  books, 
never  to  be  idle  within  his  leisure,  to  be  punctual  and 
faithful  in  everything  he  was  told  to  do,  and  to  care 
particularly  for  his  clothes.  The  rod  was  never  re- 
quired to  make  him  perform  his  duties  ;  he  reverenced 
and  feared  his  mother's  reprimands  more  than  the 
rod  ;  and  he  had  but  two  strokes  of  the  whip  from 
his  four  school-teachers,  and  those  for  telling  the 
truth,  with  one  other  comrade,  though  more  than 
thirty  of  the  scholars  were  guilty  of  the  same  pecca- 
dillo at  the  same  time  ;  while  the  use  of  the  rod  every 
day  was  so  common,  yet  the  words  and  regrets  of  the 
school-master,  who  chastised  him,  made  a  more  lasting 
impression  on  his  mind  than  the  degradation  and 
pain  of  the  rod,  as  he  had,  at  every  school  held  the 
first  place  as  to  behaviour  and  the  discipline  of  the 
schools. 

I  must  tell  the  boys  this  story :  It  happened  at 
Diamond  Grove  Academy.  J.  S.  Cook,  a  Northern 
man,  was  teaching.  The  Academy  was  near  a  public 
road,  and  Mr.  Cook,  habitually,  walked  out  every  day, 
for  half  an  hour,  after  all  had  recited  the  lessons,  giv- 
en them  the  evening  before,  to  learn  at  home ;  and, 
frequently,  during  his  absence  in  these  walks,  the 
scholars  became  noisy,  and  he  would  severely  repri- 
mand them  when  he  came  in.  His  orders  had  not 
been  obeyed  properly,  and  one  day  he  did  not  go  away 


''  CALAIS-MORALE."  11 

from  the  Acadeniy,  but  stayed  behind  the  chimney. 
Little  William,  as  was  his  frequent  custom,  had  a  nice 
lot  of  fruit  in  his  satchel,  and  the  first  noise  was 
toward  his  satchel,  for  a  share  of  this  fruit.  The 
fruit  made  one  of  them  so  happy  that  he  sprang  up 
and  struck  his  feet  three  times  together,  before  touch- 
ing the  floor  again,  and  challenged  the  boys  to  perform 
the  same  feat.  Boys  and  girls  went  to  the  same  school 
in  those  da^^s,  and  most  of  the  boys  had  a  favorite, 
and  did  not  care  to  appear  second  best  at  any  feat  of 
agility ;  so  the  continued  efforts  at  bouncing  up  and 
down,  made  by  many  of  them,  with  the  laughing 
and  talking  of  the  girls,  made  an  unusual  noise.  The 
teacher,  w^iose  orders  were  forgotten,  and  whose  com- 
ing had  not  been  expected,  suddenly  appeared  at  the 
door,  with  evident  and  just  cause  for  anger,  in  his 
face.  All  were  seated  in  a  moment,  many  being  out 
of  their  places ;  perfect  silence  reigned,  most  of  the 
scholars  holding  their  books  before  tbeir  faces. 

The  master  took  his  seat  and  commenced  his  in- 
quiry at  the  first  boy,  "  was  he  guilty  or  not  of  this 
disobedience  of  his  orders?"  All  answered  "no," 
down  to  to  the  boy  that  sat  next  to  him ;  he  made  no 
answer.  Little  William's  turn  came  next;  he  ans- 
wered that  he  supposed  he  would  have  made  as  much 
noise  as  any  of  them,  if  he  had  his  shoes  on.  These 
two  boys  w^ere  called  up ;  the  two  strokes  of  the  rod, 
and  many  of  the  tongue  w^ere  administered  on  little 
William,  but  his  comrade  did  not  get  off  so  well.  The 
teacher  told  him  that  he  had  been  a  debtor  to  disci- 
pline for  some  time,  and  he  would  then  pay  him  off 
for  the  new  and  the  old  offences.  This  boy  was  an 
amiable  and  truthful  fellow,  (ultimately  married  one 


12 

of  the  girls  then  at  school,  was  popular,  had  a  large 
property,  and  became  mayor  of  a  city  ;  but,  unfortu- 
nately entered  the  service  of  King  Alcohol,  and,  of 
course,  he  and  his  family  fared  as  all  of  those  subjects 
fare  now,  and  will  continue  to  fare  to  the  end  of 
time).  And,  I  am  sorry  to  add,  that  all  of  these  boys 
started  with  good  property  and  fair  prospects  in  life, 
except  little  William,  and  not  one  of  them  succeeded. 
Some  died  drunkards  and  gamblers,  others  squandered 
their  patrimony,  and  but  one  of  them  lives  at  this 
day.  All  were  fond  of  sport  and  excitement,  and,  I 
am  not  sure  that  some  of  them  did  not  imbibe  at 
school  the  seed  of  the  evil  which  grew  up  with  them,, 
and  ruined  them  and  their  families,  for  they  would 
play  at  cards,  when  they  could  do  so  slyly,  and  raffle 
for  their  knives  more  openly. 

Little  William  was  induced  to  take  a  chance  for  a 
fine  knife.  They  raffled  with  three  Spanish  quarters 
of  a  dollar,  to  be  shaken  well  and  then  tossed  out  of 
a  Leghorn  hat;  the  largest  number  of  heads  to  win 
the  knife.  All  had  thrown,  but  one  of  the  boys  had 
thrown  eight  heads  the  first  trial,  and  all  agreed  the 
knife  was  his,  and  it  was  useless  to  throAV  their 
chances.  When  it  came  to  little  William's  throw,  he 
said,  "I  never  give  up  the  ship;  what  one  has  done 
it  is  possible  for  another  to  do,"  and  he  began  to 
shake  up  the  quarters. 

"Well,  yes,"  some  of  the  boys  said,  "you  are  the 
luckiest  little  fellow  in  everything  we  ever  saw,  and 
if  anybody  can  tie  the  eight,  you  can." 

The  quarters  were  shaken  more  than  usual,  but  out 
came  three  heads,  which  made  the  second  throw  more- 


"CALAIS-MORALE."  13 

interesting.  Then  came  more  shaking,  and  out  came 
three  more  heads — two  still  needed  to  tie,  three  to 
beat. 

Now  for  his  next  and  last  throw  !  The  excitement 
went  up  to  fever  heat ;  some  affirming  that  his  usual 
luck  would  get  the  knife,  and  others  saying  that  nine 
beads  had  never  been  tlirown  at  three  throws  in  raf- 
fling. 

The  boy  who  had  the  shaking  up  and  putting  the 
quarters  into  the  hat  was  requested  by  the  thrower 
of  the  eight  lieads  to  not  only  shake  them  well  to- 
gether in  his  hands,  but  after  he  had  thrown  them 
into  the  hat. 

Little  AVilliam  then  gave  the  hat  a  few  extra 
shakes,  and  then  tossed  out  three  more  heads.  Up 
he  jumped  and  took  the  knife,  amid  the  shouts  of  the 
boys,  and  to  the  great  disappointment  of  the  sup- 
posed winner. 

Little  William  disliked  the  appearance  of  gambling 
or  playing  cards  for  money;  and,  when  all  had  grown 
up  to  be  young  men,  he  sometimes  played  cards  with 
these  young  men  in  order  to  convince  them  of  its 
evil  tendency,  and  to  induce  them  never  to  play  at 
public  places  or  with  gamblers.  They  persisting,  he 
played  what  he  told  them  would  be  his  last  game 
with  them,  and  never  played  another  game  with 
them,  though  often  invited  to  do  so,  and  quitted  their 
companionship  forever,  although  his  luck  at  cards 
caused  his  comrades  to  remind  him  frequently  of  the 
most  extraordinary  knife  raffle. 

At  backgammon  also  he  seemed  to  have  an  invisi- 
ble power  over  the  dice.     This  game  he  has  contin^ 


14 

ued  to  play  all  his  life,  only  as  a  pastime,  and  as  the 
best  game  of  calculation,  combined  with  luck,  of 
any  other. 

He  has  never  played  at  any  game  besides  backgam- 
mon since  that  day  at  cards,  with  uniform  success  at 
that  game,  against  all  of  the  best  players  he  has  ever 
met. 

He  has  played  often  with  Rev.  John  Bachraan,  of 
Charleston,  S.  C,  who  was  so  fond  of  Russian  back- 
gammon, and  whose  letters  of  invitation  for  these 
games  I  now  have. 

ISTow,  let  me  say  to  my  3'oung  boy  friends  here  that, 
whilst  this  extraordinary  thing  called  luck  followed 
**  little  William,"  not  only  in  those  games  above 
noted,  but  in  all  the  transactions  of  his  life,  until  he 
prayed  openly  and  often  for  some  adversity  to  come 
upon  him  in  his  last  days — a  thing  I  have  never  read 
of  any  other  man  of  sane  mind  having  prayed  for, 
though  I  have  no  doubt  there  live  many  men  who 
have  secretly  wished  what  he  openly  asked — and  if 
that  prayer  had  not  been  answered,  these  lines  would 
have  never  been  written. 

I  have  studied  closely  to  interpret  what  the  world 
calls  "  luck,"  and  it  is  a  mystery  yet,  as  well  as  the 
many  rare  events  like  *'luck"  that  happened  in  the 
life  of  "  little  AYilliam,"  and  wrote  down  at  a  late 
period  in  my  life,  that  there  was  an  invisible  hand 
which  would  not  only  encourage,  but  aid  us  to  per- 
form successfully  seeming  impossibilities,  when  our 
motives  were  pure,  and  our  diligence,  faithfulness 
and  patience  equal  to  the  task ;  and  that  all  the  fail- 
ures in  life  begin  and  end  in  the  errors  of  the  actors. 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  15 

aiul  not  in    their  business  or  the  things  connected 
-^ith  it. 

Pardon  me,  boys,  for  this  digression,  and  for  offer- 
ing to  you  the  experience  and  reflections  of  an  ohl 
man.  Let  us  go  back  to  the  young  days  of  "  little 
William,"  and  say  we  cannot  put  "  old  heads  on 
young  shoulders."  We  left  him  at  school,  and  could 
tell  you  many  interesting  little  stories  connected  with 
his  school-days,  but  neither  my  space  nor  time  will 
permit  me  to  do  so.  Whilst  he  always  said  his  les- 
sons "  perfectly  "  and  was  at  the  head  of  his  class, 
as  well  as  a  favorite  with  all  of  his  teachers,  yet,  you 
see,  he  got  a  good  "  licking,"  with  a  long  reprimand 
intended  for  the  other  unpunished  guilty  scholars 
more  than  for  him ;  and,  whilst  his  feelings  revolted 
at  this  lirst  disgrace  of  the  kind,  as  he  stood  before 
the  master,  yet,  the  thought  of  being  punished  f  Dr 
telling  the  truth  was  a  panacea  to  his  wounded  feel- 
ings. I  have  often  heard  him  speak  of  it  as  the  best 
whipping  perhaps  any  boy  ever  got,  and  that  the 
good  impression  made  would  never  be  forgotten  by 
him,  and  he  was  sure  that  those  who  were  more 
guilty  than  he  was,  but  who  escaped  the  punishment, 
would  not  forget  it  either. 

Oh,  that  schoolboys  could  know  the  evil  influences 
on  their  success  and  welfare  in  life  which  small  pec- 
cadillos at  school  have  caused,  and  that  Solomon's 
saying — "  Bring  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go, 
and  when  he  is  old  he  will  not  depart  from  it  " — is 
good. 

"  Little  AVilliam's  "  mother  commanded  him  never 
to   swear   an   oath    under    any   circumstances,    and, 


16 

though  reared  with  swearing  boys  and  men,  he  was 
never  heard  even  to  imitate  an  oath  during  his  long 
life,  and  I  have  heard  his  answer  to  wise  men  who 
had  this  had  habit  when  they  asked  him  how  it  was 
and  why  it  was  he  had  never  sworn  an  oath.  It  was 
that  he  had  alwaj^s  had  enough  better  language  or 
words  for  read}^  use,  and  never  yet  had  any  occasion 
for  such  eifete  words. 

Little  William's  mother  was  never  idle,  and  re- 
quired that  he  should  be  usefully  employed  at  some- 
thing all  of  his  holidays.  I  have  heard  her  say  that 
sunrise  had  not  caught  her  in  bed  for  fifty  years  ; 
and  after  he  had  mastered  his  Saturday's  or  holiday's 
task,  he  hunted,  fished,  or  burnt  charcoal,  with  the 
negroes,  for  the  blacksmiths,  and  sold  it  at  three 
cents  per  bushel. 

I  shall  never  forget  a  run  of  shooting  "  luck  "  he 
had.  lie  killed  two  large  squirrels  at  one  shot ;  the 
next  morning,  a  large  red  fox;  and  then  a  wild 
turkey ;  and,  although  he  was  scarcel}^  ten  years  old, 
no  such  shooting  had  been  done  by  any  man  in  that 
section. 

The  school-house  being  four  miles  from  his  home,  a 
boy  named  John  took  him  every  morning  within  one 
mile  of  the  academy,  and  met  him  there  at  night  on 
the  "Dance"  horse;  and  they  had  to  bring  up  the  cows 
every  night  from  an  old  field  about  two  miles  from 
their  home,  so  he  was  well  taught  in  driving  cows, 
which  has  been  useful  to  him  in  his  last  days,  and  as 
to  breaking  and  driving  steers  he  had  few  equals. 

He  was  called  "  little  "William  "  because  he  had  a 
cousin  named  William,  who  sometimes  lived  at  his 


"CALAIS-MORALE."  17 

grandmother's,  and,  although  about  the  same  age, 
he  was  of  much  stouter  frame,  and  the  "  little  "  was 
to  distinguish  them  when  called  or  spoken  of,  and 
this  soubriquet  could  never  be  rubbed  off,  though  by 
some  it  was  changed  to  "Buck,"  for  short. 

"Buck"  in  his  hunting  never  shot  a  deer;  for  fish- 
ing he  had  no  taste ;  and  was  not  disposed  to  hunt 
and  take  the  lives  of  animals  which  he  could  not  re- 
store ;  nor  could  he  reason  that  their  lives  were  not 
as  precious  to  them  as  his  life  to  him. 

There  seemed  to  him  a  little  smack  of  cruelty  at- 
tached to  this  business;  at  least,  he  determined  to 
cease  hunting  game,  until  some  one  had  outdone  or 
equalled  his  success  in  this  business. 

A  hunt  for  wild  bees  was  proposed  to  him  by  a 
neighbor,  who  was  an  adept,  and  many  miles  he 
travelled  through  the  woods  with  this  man,  named 
Samuel  Seward,  who  always  called  him  "  Son  Will," 
and  many  bee-trees  were  found  by  the  baits  placed 
to  attract  them,  as  well  as,  in  dry  seasons,  at 
crossings  and  wet  places. 

These  wild  bees  sought  the  water,  and  thence  to 
get  and  follow  the  bee-line  required  much  skill.  He, 
as  well  as  his  neighbor,  had  many  hives  of  bees,  and 
he  was  fond  of  honey. 

One  Saturda}',  Buck  wanted  a  yoke  of  oxen,  and 
went  to  Mr.  Seward's  to  borrow  his,  expecting  they 
were  in  his  pasture,  but  they  were  out  on  the  com- 
mons. Mr.  Seward  was  cutting  oats,  and  said  if  he 
would  go  through  a  piece  of  woods  to  an  old  field 
beyond,  he  thought  he  might  find  them. 

As  he  had  nothing  of  more  importance  to  do,  he 

2 


18 

set  out  to  look  for  the  oxen.  At  the  first  branch  he 
crossed  he  saw  some  bees  sucking  water,  and,  suppos- 
ing they  were  from  one  or  the  other  of  the  houses, 
where  there  were  so  many  bees,  he  conckided  to  prac- 
tice a  little,  and  see  which  house  they  went  to. 

These  bees  went  to  neither  house,  but  straight  for- 
ward in  the  woods.  The  course  was  followed,  and  a 
wild  bee-tree  soon  found  and  marked. 

At  a  crossing  of  the  same  branch,  not  far  otf,  more 
bees  were  sucking.  The  most  of  them  flew  straight 
up  the  path  he  was  going,  and  not  toward  the  bee-tree 
just  found.  Following  their  course,  he  found  another 
bee-tree,  and  marked  that.  He  did  not  find  the  steers, 
and,  returning  through  the  same  piece  of  woods,  he 
found  another  bee-tree  and  marked  that. 

Mr.  Seward  and  William  had  considered  the  find- 
ing of  one  bee-tree  in  one  day's  hunt  not  a  bad  busi- 
ness;  so,  in  about  three  hours,  "Buck"  returned  to 
where  Mr.  S.  was  harvesting  oats,  quite  elated  with 
his  success,  to  say  he  did  not  find  the  oxen,  but  had 
found  three  bee-trees  in  the  piece  of  woods  next  his 
house.  Mr.  S.  answered,  "  It's  a  mistake,  *  son 
Will,'  they  are  not  bee-trees, but  bees  suck  oak  knots 
at  this  season  of  the  year,"  and  he  laughed  at  his 
supposed  great  luck. 

Buck  was  always  a  stickler  in  that  which  he  be- 
lieved was  true,  and  he  retorted  at  his  ridicule,  and 
would  have  him  go  and  look  at  the  bee-trees,  which 
were  not  very  far  from  his  house. 

He,  with  astonishment,  confirmed  the  fact,  which 
proved  itself  when  they  were  cut  down.     He  said, 


*' CALAIS-MORALE."  19 

"'son  AVill,'  your  'luck'  is  astonisliiiig,  and  you 
will  do  some  remarkable  things  yet  when  you  become 
a  man." 

The  philosophy  of  this  thing  was  that  Mr.  S.  was 
such  a  noted  bee  tinder  that  lie  never  supposed  that 
bees  would  lodge  so  near  to  him ;  therefore,  he  never 
hunted  these  woods,  and  this  chance  ox-hunt  placed 
tlie  tinding  of  them  in  l^uck's  way;  and  Buck  was 
fond  of  Avalking  and  athletics.  He  also  had  his 
vanity  raised,  and  Avas  somewhat  pleased  by  these 
extra  hunts. 

In  athletics  and  marbles  he  distanced  all  his  school- 
mates, and  frequently  ran  mile-races  around  the  race- 
course near  the  academy,  all  of  which  were  healthful 
to  the  mind  and  body. 

]^ow,  my  boy  readers,  as  I  have  tied  several  other 
stories  to  the  one  promised  and  commenced  with, 
let  us  return  to  th'fe  log-house  on  the  stage-road  and 
see  how  Buck  gets  on  farming  and  reading  history. 
He  had  plowed  with  his  steer,  "Buck,"  for  the 
first  time  ;  had  made  one  crop  and  planted  another ; 
•had  read  Rollins'  Ancient  History,  Plutarch's  Lives, 
and  Gibbons'  Rome,  and  had  made  a  wish  and  resolve 
to  see  Rome  and  the  Pope. 

All  know  that  the  five  dollars  which  an  aunt  from 
South  Carolina  had  given  him,  and  which  he  had  kept 
so  long,  was  his  full  capital,  with  no  chance  for  more 
money,  unless  made  by  his  own  hands  and  head. 

A  few  days  after  his  above-mentioned  resolve,  a 
stranger  from  North  Carolina  made  a  suggestion  to 
him  which  fitted  his  capital.     This  was  to  keep  cut 


20  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

oats,  corn  and  fodder  to  sell  to  this  stranger  and 
others  on  their  return  from  Petersburg,  as  they 
could  not  carry  enough  feed  with  them  from  home 
to  last  them  back  again,  particularly  when  loaded 
with  cotton. 

He  told  him  he  would  sell  cut  oats  readily  at  ten 
cents  per  bushel,  and  corn  and  fodder,  naming  a  value 
for  them  also. 

Buck's  friend,  the  bee-hunter — Mr.  Seward — had 
many  stacks  of  oats,  which  he  had  heard  him  say  he 
would  gladly  sell  at  live  dollars  each,  and  his  servant, 
Edmund,  and  one  of  his  sons  had  a  small  lot  of 
corn  and  fodder  they  wished  to  sell ;  so  Buck  bought 
that,  and  got  him  an  old  cutting-knife,  and  fixed  up 
a  place  to  cut  oats  in,  and  continued  his  historical 
reading  by  pine-knots  for  .light  at  night,  and  worked 
all  of  the  day. 

The  corn  and  fodder  sold,  at  a  good  profit,  like  hot 
cakes,  and  in  a  w^eek  Buck  was  able  to  buy  one  stack 
of  oats,  and  commence  this,  to  him,  new  w^ork  of 
cutting  up  oats  to  sell  at  ten  cents  the  bushel. 

Very  soon  the  stack  of  oats  was  sold  and  produced 
fifteen  dollars  and  a  blistered,  sore  hand;  but  by  this 
operation  he  had  plenty  of  cash  capital  to  buy  a  good 
stack  of  oats,  corn,  and  fodder,  and  soon  worked  his 
hands  tough,  and  in  a  few"  months  he  had  cleared 
over  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  gathered  his  own 
crop,  and  read  Hallam's  Middle  Ages,  the  Life  of  Dr. 
Ben.  Franklin,  Blair's  Lectures,  and  other  books  of 
less  importance. 

Eailroads  were  not  dreamed  of  in  those  days,  but 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  21 

much  of  the  tobacco  was  rolled  hy  felloes  fastened  on 
the  hogsheads.  The  other  produce,  cotton,  &c.,  was 
all  dragged  b}^  my  door,  from  North  Carolina  to  Pe- 
tersburg. 

Buck  always  walked  eleven  miles,  to  the  house  of 
his  lawyer  friend,  to  return  books  and  get  others,  to 
continue  his  course  of  reading,  and  as  he  remained 
with  him  during  the  night,  his  friend  asked  him 
would  he  take  a  school  ?  lie  answered  that  he  would 
not  fancy  the  business  of  a  pedigogue  ;  it  was  too  se- 
dentary, and  there  was  but  little  gain  in  this  calling. 
He  then  asked  him  what  he  thought  of  being  a  law- 
yer. He  replied  that  it  was  an  honorable  profession, 
and  frequently  fitted  persons  for  high  stations  in  life, 
but  for  a  very  poor  man  to  commence  practice  in  a 
country  village,  in  competition  with  old  and  rich  law- 
yers, was  an  uphill  business,  and  he  mentioned  some 
of  that  character  in  his  village,  and  added,  if  they 
would  banish  whiskey  from  the  country  that  many  of 
these  lawyers  would  have* to  seek  other  professions; 
that  he  had  neither  a  desire  or  taste  for  a  profession 
by  which  his  living  was  made  and  increased  through 
the  misdeeds  and  errors  of  men  under  the  influence  of 
whiskey. 

He  added,  that  in  a  few  months,  by  the  advice  of  a 
stranger,  he  had  continued  his  reading,  done  all  of 
other  necessary  work,  and  cleared,  by  his  own  hands 
and  head  over  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  and  that 
these  same  strangers  had  advised  him  to  commence 
a  small  store,  and  that  they  would  haul  his  goods,  at 
a  nominal  price,  on  their  return  from  Petersburg. 

He  expressed  almost  as  much  astonishment  at  these 


22 

facts  and  assertions  as  Mr.  Seward  did  at  the  three 
genuine  bee-trees. 

As  William's  father  had  told  this  friend  on  his 
death  bed  that  if  he  did  not  advise  and  take  care  of 
him  he  would  haunt  him  after  he  died,  he  felt  an  in- 
terest in  him,  and  asked  his  plans. 

He  told  him  he  intended  neither  to  ask  or  receive 
either  credit  or  pecuniary  aid  of  any  kind  from  any 
person ;  that  he  had  resolved  to  hoe  his  own  row 
from  the  jump;  and  to  A^isit  Rome,  if  he  ever  made 
money  enough ;  and,  although  he  had  a  natural  an- 
tipathy to  whiskey  in  every  way,  and  that  perhaps 
grew  out  of  the  fact,  which  he  liad  learned,  that  it 
killed  his  father  with  the  gout ;  and,  if  he  kept  the 
little  wayside  store,  that,  as  everybody  drank  and 
sold  w^hiskey,  even  to  the  preacher  and  next  merchant 
to  him,  whiskey  must  be  sold,  of  course. 

This  would  be  his  main  objection  to  the  store  busi- 
ness, for  which  there  was  -a  remedy,  hoAvever.  This 
was  to  test  fairly  the  keeping  and  selling  of  liquor, 
and  then  to  banish  the  article  from  the  store,  or  quit 
the  store,  if  business  could  not  be  profitably  conduct- 
ed without  it. 

The  lawyer  gravely  assented  to  all  of  these  pro- 
jects and  reasonings,  and  bid  him  go  on  as  proposed  ; 
that  something  might  come  out  of  his  queer  notions, 
so  different  from  those  of  all  other  persons ;  that  the 
provender  business  must  be  a  good  one,  at  any  rate  ; 
that  he  mig^ht  continue  the  historical  course ;  Ijut  so 
much  business  must  lessen  the  time  for  reading,  &c. 

AVilliam  went   to  Petersburo^  and  bought  his  first 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  23 

goods  from  the  grandson  of  the  most  noted  Senator 
that  North  Carolina  has  ever  produced— a  friend  and 
contemporary  of  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke. 

This  gentleman  had  just  opened  l)usiness  there 
with  William's  cousins,  and  he  continued  his  trade 
with  him  in  many  jirms  and  as  long  as  he  was  in 
Petershurg. 

This  man  was  an  honest  man,  and  years  afterwards 
I  heard  the  highest  compliment  paid  to  him  in  a 
public  agricultural  meeting  of  first-class  persons  that 
I  have  ever  heard  paid  to  any  man  publicly. 

Having  faithful,  honest  men,  under  all  circum- 
stances, to  do  business  is  equal  to  finding  three  bee- 
trees  when  you  are  not  hunting  for  them,  and  I  will 
here  say  that  this  same  accidental  "  luck"  has  placed 
him  in  very  large  business  transactions  with  the  same 
class  of  men  in  New  Orleans,  Mobile,  Savannah, 
Charleston,  Norfolk,  Richmond,  Philadelphia,  New 
York,  Boston,  and  Liverpool,  England. 

Napoleon  I.  said  it  was  only  one  step  from  the  sub- 
lime to  the  ridiculous  ;  and  now,  boys,  when  we  have 
backed  Buck  to  the  oat-cutting  knife  and  the  little 
store  project,  we  are  not  far  from  this  thing. 

Some  poet  has  said  that  an  honest  man  is  the  no- 
blest work  of  God,  and  Buck's  luck  in  finding  so 
many  where  he  needed  them  was  better  luck  than  the 
raffle,  the  hunt,  or  the  three  bee-trees. 

I  have  yet  to  find  the  man  who  has  set  out  in  life, 
and  strictly  followed  the  proverb  of  Solomon  men- 
tioned in  the  prospectus  of  this  book,  who  has  failed 
to  succeed  in  his  calling.       Simply  be  diligent. 


^4 

This  word,  when  uttered  bj  the  wisest  of  men, 
like  the  diamond,  corruscates  and  cuts  seeming  im- 
possibilities. 

It  means  literally  what  it  says,  without  any  pre- 
varication, and  what  I  write  of  Buck's  story  is  to  con- 
vince and  convict  you  of  the  truth  implied  by  this 
word. 

Some  of  you  may  think  or  say  this  implicit  ob^e- 
dience  to  the  commands  of  our  parents  and  masters 
is  a  hard  thing,  and  makes  us  servants,  and  we  like 
to  have  our  own  way  sometimes,  but  I  wish  you  to 
see  and  learn  that  perfect  obedience  is  not  only  easy, 
but  always  best,  for  those  who  will  it,  and  that  by 
obedienca  alone  we  learn  to  command  others  pro^Dcrly 
and  obtain  success,  whereas  wrangling  and  conflict  in 
business  and  its  failures  arise  mostly  from  disobe- 
dience. 

You  boys  may  suppose  that  1  am  writing  for  you  a 
fictitious  character  for  Buck,  but  it  is  not  so.  He  had 
his  foibles  as  well  as  other  boys,  and  was  taught  to 
subdue  and  control  them;  and,  although  he  made 
many  failures  in  this  effort,  yet,  his  early  lessons  of 
obedience  enabled  him  to  conquer  self  and  tempta- 
tions which  would  have  been  fatal  if  he  had  wavered 
and  hesitated  too  long  when  these  trials  of  his  faith 
beset  him  ;  but  as  he  always  prayed  to  be  directed  to 
the  right,  and  tried  to  act  on  pure  and  correct  princi- 
ples, something  to  him  almost  mysterious  would  occur 
to  set  him  right  again  in  due  time,  and,  as  he  made 
the  Bible  his  regular  and  constant  text-book  with  all 
of  his  historical  studies,  he,  by  chance,  in  his  worst 


*<  CALAIS-MORALE."  2S 

dilemmas,  would  always  find  somctliing  in  that  rarest 
book  of  all  books  that  would  show  him  plainly  how 
to  act  and  escape  the  impending  dangers,  and  particu^ 
larly  to  palliate,  if  not  cure,  the  weak  points  discov- 
ered in  his  own  character. 

Now,  boys,  as  you  may  weary  of  the  deep  truths  that 
experience  and  age  confirm  and  freshen,  in  order  to- 
impress  upon  your  mind  that  many  occurrences  ancJ 
things  which  happen  in  your  boyhood  direct  and  govern 
your  actions,  more  or  less,  in  future  life,  I  will  relate 
some  sayings  of  "Buck's;"  also,  an  anecdote,  which 
gave  rise  to  them,  and  when  you  have  the  whole  of  his^ 
story  you  then  can  judge  better  of  this  thing  yourselves.. 
He  said,  "Always  strike  high,  if  you  lose  your 
hatchet;"  that  to-morrow  and  sorrow  rhymed  harshly 
to  his  ears,  and  that,  if  opportunities  were  not  seized  in^ 
the  "  nick  "  of  time,  they  were  lost  forever. 

Not  long  after  his  extraordinary  raffle,  he,  with  his 
comrade,  E.  A.  E.,  was  on  his  way  home  from  school, 
and  seeing  a  number  of  crows  fly  from  a  large  oak- 
tree  in  their  path,  and  one  crow  perched  near  the  top 
of  the  tree,  whose  cawing  indicated  that  it  was  a  young- 
crow.  Buck  said  to  Robert,  that  if  he  could  find  a  stone^ 
he  would  kill  that  crow,  as  all  crows  pulled  up  corn. 

Robert,  his  senior,  a  steady,  book-worm  of  a  boy,: 
said:  "Come  along,  you  httle  fool!  to  say  or  even  to 
suppose  that  you  can  kill  a  crow  by  throwing  a  stone  at 

it." 

However,  Buck  hunted  up  a  stone,  threw  it  at  the 
crow,  and  killed  it  dead  ;  picked  it  up,  ran  away  and 
overtook  Robert,  and  exulting  said:  "See,  here  is 
another  of  your  impossibilities  demolished  with  a  small 


26  ''  CALAIS-MORALE." 

stone  at  the  first  throw !     You  know  how  jour  knife 
went  at  the  raffle,  when  the  chances  were  greater  against 

success." 

Robert,  though  a  manly-looking  boy,  seemed  puzzled, 
and  said,  "  They  call  you  '  lucky,'  but  the  crow  got  it 
this  time." 

"Buck  "  carried  the  crow  two  miles  to  his  home  for  a 
trophy,  and  I  have  often  heard  him  say  that  crow,  that 
tree,  and  the  facts  connected  with  this  deed  were  ever 
fresh  in  his  mind,  and  that  they  encouraged  him  and 
caused  him,  in  maturer  age,  to  engage  in  and  conquer 
many  untried  and  apparently  impossible  things.  He 
had  read  in  some  book  that,  despite  many  trials,  one 
will  undoubtedly  succeed  by  dihgence.  He  knew^  that 
minnows  and  not  whales  were  the  fish  to  be  caught  in 
riverlets ;  and  that  to  ber/in  is  tlie  first  requisite  for 
every  act  and  work  in  life.  To  do  is  the  second  act. 
To  suffer  is  too  often  the  third  act,  because  w^e  are  not 
'^  diligent  ^^  m  the  business.  Nothing  was  ever  done 
without  a  trial,  and  this  word  sounds  so  much  like  try-all 
that  the  verj^  word  carried  a  key  to  success. 

Well,  boj's,  we  will  return  to  "little  WilHam,"  now 
so  full  of  business  and  money,  and  see  what  he  is  doing 
in  the  Avarfare  of  life,  so  young,  with  books  for  his 
companions,  helpers  and  advisers.  He  was  full  of  busi- 
ness prosperity,  and  money  did  not  appear  to  elate  him  ; 
he  had  fixed  one  price  onlg  for  his  goods,  and  that  at  a 
reasonable  profit ;  he  had  no  time  to  throw  away  hag- 
gling over  goods,  the  value  of  which  he  knew  less  about 
than  his  customers.  Old  merchants  were  his  competi- 
tors ;  he    could  say  that  he  bought  his  snoods  for  cash 


"CALAIS-MORALE."  27 

only,  and  tried  to  get  them  from  lionest  men  ;  that  he 
had  no  experience  in  eitlier  tlieir  quality  or  market 
value,  and  that,  as  far  as  his  hats  and  caps  were  con- 
cerned, he  never  saw  them  until  they  were  opened  in 
the  store ;  that  he  went  to  the  hat  store  owned  by  David 
11.  Moore,  of  Petersburg,  told  him  of  his  entire  igno- 
rance of  the  value  or  quality  of  this  class  of  goods, 
also  the  amount  of  capital  to  lit  up  the  little  country 
store,  and  handed  his  money  to  take  out  as  much  as  he 
thought  necessary  to  buy  the  hats  and  caps  at  his  lowest 
cash  prices  to  make  up  that  department,  and  asked  him 
to  pack  and  direct  them,  lie  traded  with  this  house  for 
many  years,  and  often  heard  Mr.  Moore  say  it  was  the 
cheapest  bill  of  hats  he  ever  sold. 

I  have  often  heard  "  Buck  "  say  that  after  many  years 
of  commerce  and  business  with  mankind,  he  had  found 
rnerchaids,  as  a  class,  by  far  the  most  liberal  and  correct 
people  in  their  estimate  of  things,  and  that  to  be  a  true 
merchant  required  as  high  talents  as  any  profession 
whatever. 

Notwithstanding  all  of  his  success  in  his  business, 
which  to  him  and  others  seemed  to  be  play  and  not 
work,  lie  attended  to  it  with  much  cheerfulness  and 
alacrit}'.  Yet  he  had  an  inherent  repugnance  to  one 
thing  connected  with  it.  This  was  the  custom,  then 
universal,  of  selling  whiskey  in  country  stores ;  a  cus- 
tom made  necessary  by  the  demands  of  the  country 
people,  and  particularly^  of  his  first  patrons,  the 
wagoners. 

Still,  he  did  not  wish  to  keep  or  sell  whiskey  to  be 
carried  away  from  his  store  to  be  drank.  It  was  retailed 
at  nine  pence  per  quart;    and  corn-huskings,  liarvests, 


28 

log-rollings,  weddings  or  christenings,  without  whiskey, 
must  be  failures. 

The  bottle  and  the  morning  dram  were  common  in 
every  house  and  on  the  road,  in  wet  and  dry  weather. 

Whiskey  was  considered  the  "Panacea"  by  every 
one;  and  though  "Buck,"  in  his  short  career  in  life,  had 
both  seen  and  h'eard  of  some  of  its  evil  influences 
amongst  his  neighbors  and  friends,  and  noted  them 
down  and  made  his  resolve  against  it,  yet,  the  taking 
of  such  a  novel  stand  against  the  opinions  and  acts  of 
of  his  seniors  anoyed  him,  for  he  remembered  the  old 
adage:  "  When  in  Eome,  do  as  the  Romans  do." 

He  reluctantly  sold  whiskey,  and  looked  into  and 
watched  its  eftects  upon  those  who  drank  it ;  also,  the 
effect  on  their  families ;  and,  when  convinced  that  his 
agency  in  this  traffic  was  the  cause  of  obvious  and  pal- 
pable evil  to  his  customers,  he  would  refuse  the  selling 
of  it  at  every  hazard  to  his  business,  declaring  that  he 
could  not  willingly  return  evil  for  good,  whilst  the  Bible 
commanded  us  "  to  return  good  for  evil." 

The  provender  business  had  grown  to  be  a  large  and 
profitable  one,  and   the  sale  of  goods  increased  rapidly. 

Ancient  history  did  not  receive  as  much  attention  as 
heretofore.  Cash  accounts,  and  the  keeping  and 
enlarging  stocks  of  goods  and  provender  was  quite 
a  business  for  a  youth. 

Money  and  customers  were  daily  increasing;  a  black- 
smith shop  had  been  built  for  W.  Nolly,  and  Buck 
concluded  that  rogues  and  fire  were  his  chief  enemies. 

He  had  not  heard  of  insurance  companies.  He  told 
his  reasons,  and  mentioned  to  one  of  his  customers  that 
he  would  build  a  stone  house   and   cover  it  with  sheet- 


^9 

iron,  if  he  could  partially  determine  the  cost  of  the 
stone  beforehand.  The  party  approved  of  the  project, 
and  said  that,  after  he  had  laid  by  his  crops,  he  would 
haul  the  stone  with  his  wagon  and  ox-cart  at  a  very  low 
rate,  if  he  would  build  such  a  stone  house^  The  cost  of 
the  sheet-iron  and,  as  nearly  as  could  be,  of  tlie  stone, 
lime,  and  the  building  was  ascertained,  and  the  work 
commenced  and  soon  completed,  at  less  expense  than  a 
wooden  house.     It  had  a  good  cellar  under  it. 

lie  had  arguments  with  his  customers  and  kinsman 
(who  was  rather  fond  of  wliiskey)  in  regard  to  the  sell- 
ing and  drinking  of  whiskey ;  and  had  kept  an  account 
of  the  cost  of  this  article — worse  than  useless — to  his 
customers,  and  had  often  told  them  what  would  be  the 
result  to  their  estates  in  the  course  of  time. 

The  figures  and  facts  were  startling  to  him,  and  set 
him  to  thinking,  as  he  had  commenced  keeping  yearly 
accounts  with  his  customers,  how  he  should  get  his  debts 
from  those  who  were  evidently  ruining  themselves  with 
whiskey,  and  how  could  he  reconcile  it  to  himself  to 
take  the  beds  and  food  from  their  wives  and  children 
for  those  debts  contracted  in  purchasing  this  pernicious 
article. 

The  law  in  those  days  gave  the  creditor  power  to  sell 
all  the  property  of  every  kind.  He  said  in  such  cases 
he  should  give  up  all  such  debts. 

To  these  reasons  and  arguments  against  the  sale  as 
well  as  the  use  of  liquor,  the  answer  was  pretty  much 
the  same  with  all  of  his  patrons :  that  he  was  not 
responsible  for  any  person's  drinking  whiskey,  and  if 
he  did  not  keep  it,  many  other  merchants  did,  and  it 
would  be  only  necessary  to  get  it  elsewhere. 

He  must  sufter  a  heavv  loss  of   customers ;  indeed. 


30"  "CALAIS-MORALE." 

not  one  of  them  would  entertain  the  idea  that  a  country 
store  could  be  kept  up  at  all  without  sellinoj  whiskey. 

Buck  responded  that  the  aider  and  abettor  in  all 
crimes  and  evil  doings  was  held  as  criminal  in  the  com- 
mon law,  and  that  the  Divine  Law  was  positive  in  its 
condemnation  of  this  thing,  and  that  he  had  been  daily 
more  and  more  convinced  of  this  sin  and  its  destructive 
tendency  to  both  the  buyer  and  the  seller. 

He  had  spoken  to  a  party  in  Petersburg  of  his  proba- 
ble intentions  in  regard  to  it,  and  had  told  him  that  it 
would  break  up  his  business  if  he  left  off  selling  whis- 
key. The  person  oflered  him  one  thousand  dollars  per 
year  to  live  with  him  as  clerk,  and,  being  a  young  man 
with  no  family  except  his  mother,  and  having  already 
made  a  handsome  sum  of  money  to  support  both,  he 
preferred  to  die  poor  rather  than  to  make  a  fortune, 
knowingly,  at  the  cost  and  to  the  ruin  of  many  of  his 
fellowmen,  many  of  them  persons  who  had  assisted  him 
much  in  making  his  present  independence. 

After  several  years  of  trial  in  this  thing,  of  which  he 
had  formed  his  opinion  before  he  commenced  business, 
he  was  now  more  than  ever  fully  convinced  of  and  con- 
firmed in  it. 

The  ear  of  public  opinion  and  the  loss  of  money 
should  not  induce  him  to  continue  a  business  that  he 
knew  to  be  wrong.  Such  a  man,  in  his  opinion,  was  far- 
from  what  all  men  at  least  should  try  to  be,  and  he 
determined  not  to  sell  himself  and  his  principles  for 
probable  extra  gains  or  for  applause. 

The  blacksmith-shop  had  become  the  place  for  tip- 
pling ;  many  of  the  customers,  instead  of  sending  to 
the  shop,  came  themselves,  sent  to  the  store  for  whiskey,,. 


31 

frequently  lost  the  day  from  their  business,  and  some- 
times, when  they  had  taken  too  much  whiskey,  would 
come  to  the  store,  where  ladies  were  shopping,  which 
always  caused  Buck  to  feel  ashamed. 

He  knew,  too,  that  many  of  these  persons  were  in 
debt,  and  spent  money  for  whiskey  that  ought  to  have 
been  spent  for  necessaries  for  their  families,  and  he 
could  see  no  good  in  the  thing. 

Had  be  known  anything  of  temperance  societies,  he 
might  have  tried  to  get  up  one,  and  have  gotten  out  of 
bis  dilemma  in  regard  to  selling  whiskey,  but  he  was 
alone  in  his  opinion,  except  for  the  women. 

He  bad  a  distant  relation  who  had  bad  a  most  excel- 
lent wife  and  nine  daughters.  When  sober,  he  was 
remarkable  for  his  good  disposition  and  industry ;  but, 
when  be  got  to  a  certain  stage  of  drunkenness,  be 
became  a  madman,  .and  would  mount  bis  borse  and 
attempt  to  ride  into  the  blacksmitb-sbop,  barn  or  store. 
One  of  his  legs  had  been  broken  in  one  of  these  mad 
frolics.     When  drunk,  be  bad  neither  reason  nor  fear. 

What  could  these  poor  women  do  with  such  a  man 
at  home  ?  And  were  not  there  other  men  of  like  tem- 
perament, who  bad  committed  great  crimes  in  this  state 
of  drunken  insanity  and  suffered  for  it  ?  Had  William 
not  seen  and  read  that  the  majority  of  crime  and 
pauperism  bad  its  source  in  whiskey  ?  And  were  not 
the  persons  who  manufactured  or  sold  it  aiders  and 
abettors  in  this  cursed  thing  ? 

He  bad  been  taught  to  speak  the  truth  under  all  and 
any  circumstances,  and  be  answered  "yes"  to  this 
question. 

He  went  to  the  store.    An  old  member  of  the  Church, 


52  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

named  Herod  Foster,  said,  however,  to  be  too  fond  of 
whiskey,  was  waiting  to  go  in  wdth  his  jug  for  liquor. 

William  filled  his  jug,  and  told  him  it  was  the  last 
measure  of  whiskey  he  ever  intended  to  sell  to  any  per- 
son whatever ;  that  he  knew  that  so  far  he  had  dealt  in 
the  thing  against  his  principles  and  wishes  ;  that  he  had 
tested  the  matter  for  a  time  theoretically  and  practi- 
cally, and  had,  so  far,  found  only  evil  in  it,  and  he 
wished  him  and  his  children  to  bear  testimony  for  him 
that,  let  the  consequences  be  even  the  ruin  of  his  then 
prosperous  business,  he  would  remain  firm  and  steadfast 
to  his  well-considered  and  now  matured  resolution,  and 
that,  if  he  would  divide  the  syllables  and  letters  of  his 
oame,  it  would  read  '*  Will-I-am." 

The  old  man  looked  at  him  with  some  surprise  in  his 
face,  and  his  expression  seemed  to  say,  "  You  are  now 
right,  my  boy,  for  whiskey  has  been  a  curse  to  my  fam- 
ily, but  I  could  not  resist  the  temptation. 

Many  of  William's  customers  left  his  store  and  traded 
wdth  other  merchants,  and  many  murmured  at  this  novel 
thing  in  business,  and  for  a  short  time  things  looked  as 
if  one  of  the  main  props  to  William's  business  had 
been  knocked  out ;  even  the  blacksmith  shop  seemed 
to  have  been  deserted,  but  for  the  sounds  of  the  ham- 
mer. 

Such  an  act  had  never  been  dreamed  or  heard  of  in 
that  country,  and,  of  course,  the  facts  were  soon  report- 
ed and  known  by  everybody  in  the  parish.  Jugs, 
bottles,  and  ticklers  took  their  leave  and  never  made 
their  appearance  again. 

I  have  heard  William  say  he  had  a  "  place  for  every- 
thing and  kept  everything  in   its  place,"  and  could  go 


3a 

into  his  store  at  night,  without  a  candle,  and  get  ahnost 
anything  called  for,  except  whiskey,  but  that  he  never 
could  find  a  satisfactory  place  for  the  packages  that  con- 
tained or  were  used  in  handling  that. 

After  he  got  rid  of  the  evil  spirits  he  declared  his 
store  gained  capacity,  and  he  had  space  and  place  for 
everything ;  and,  although  he  had  four  stores  in  dlfter- 
ent  little  towns  and  villages,  in  the  course  of  the  next 
thirty  years,  he  never  saw  but  one  jug  carried  to  any  of 
them  for  whiskey,  and  that  was  brought  by  a  travelling 
stranger. 

In  less  than  one  month  from  the  time  of  the  exodus 
of  the  evil  spirits  from  his  business,  comparative  strangers 
came  from  a  distance  and  more  than  made  up  for  the 
whiskey  consumers  he  had  lost.  So  many  extra  cus- 
tomers came  tliait  a  six-months'  stock  of  goods  were  sold 
out  in  two  months. 

As  he  had  recently  built  a  new  cotton-gin,  and  time 
for  accounts  to  be  due  was  yet  one  month  short,  he  did 
not  have  enough  cash  capital  to  buy  the  requisite  second 
stock  of  goods,  and  concluded  to  purchase  a  bill  of  dry- 
goods  in  Richmond,  on  six  months'  credit — the  usual 
time — of  F.  S.  &  J.  S.  James  &  Co.,  provided  they 
would  willingly  grant  it,  for  he  had  as  great  a  repug- 
nance and  abhorrence  of  debt  as  of  whiskey. 

He  got  three  letters  of  recommendation  in  Peters- 
burg—one from  Q.  &  W.  L.  M.;  one  from  D.  R.  K; 
and  one  from  IN".  M.  M. 

On  his  arrival  in  Richmond,  he  presented  one  of  these 
letters  to  Mr.  Fleming  James  and  held  the  other  two 
in  his  hand  to  be  road  later.  Mr.  James  asked  what 
these  letters  were  for.     He  told  him,  and  gave  his  reas- 

3 


34  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

sons  for  bringing  them.     He  had  bought  goods  before 
of  the  firm  for  cash. 

Mr.  James  said  the  letters  were  not  necessary ;  that 
he  would  sell  him  all  the  goods  he  wanted  on  the  time 
proposed,  and  even  on  longer  tinie  if  it  was  more  con- 
venient. 

He  opened  the  letter  first  handed  to  him  and  read  it, 
and  he  said,  ''  Young  man,  this  letter,  from  the  grand- 
son of  a  noted  senator  of  ^orth  Carolina,  is  worth  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  to  you." 

The  goods  were  bought,  the  store  refilled,  and,  of 
course,  William's  faith  in  the  correctness  of  his  act  in 
refusing  ever  to  sell  any  more  whiskey  was  strengthened 
by  these  unexpected  and  extraordinary  proofs.  He  was 
convinced  that,  let  error  or  iniquity  be  ever  so  strong 
or  so  popular — let  the  ignorance  of  things  necessary  to 
be  known  be  ever  so  dark  and  palpable,  we  may  assure 
ourselves  that,  though  truth  and  justice  may  sufi:er  a 
temporary  eclipse,  they  will  yet,  in  the  long  run,  as  cer- 
tainly vindicate  themselves  and  recover  their  original 
glory  as  that  the  sun  shall  rise  again. 

There  is  no  man  who  does  not  approve  of  virtue, 
though  but  few  pursue  it,  and  a  good  conscience  is  the 
testimony  of  a  good  life  and  the  reward  of  it.  But,  let 
wickedness  escape  as  it  may  at  the  bar ;  it  never  fails  to 
do  justice  to  itself;  for  every  guilty  person  is  his  own 
hangman. 

We  are  all  sick,  I  confess ;  and  it  is  not  for  sick  men 
to  play  the  physician ;  but  it  is  yet  lawful  for  a  man  in 
a  hospital  to  discourse  upon  the  common  condition  and 
distempers  of  the  place. 

Well,  boys,  I  have  so  far  in  my  true  stories  attempted 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  35 

to  projiulice  your  minds  against  drinking  or  selling 
wliiskoy  and  to  place  the  evil  and  the  good  in  it  faith- 
fully hcfore  you. 

Whdst  it  is  easy  for  boys  to  become  sober  men,  yet, 
it  is  one  of  the  hardest  tasks  imaginable  for  a  man  who 
has  become  a  drunkard  to  change  and  become  and  re- 
main a  sober  man  and  recover  his  first  position  socially 
and  morally  ;  and,  after  a  long  life  and  close  examina- 
tion of  this  tiling,  I  have  to  agree  in  AVilliam's  opinion, 
that  there  is  but  one  way  to  escape,  and  that  is,  "Taste 
not,  touch  not,  handle  not "  this  unclean  thing. 

Could  I  tell  you  of  all  I  have  seen  and  known  to  be 
true  oh  this  subject,  without  wounding  the  living,  I 
would  place  before  you  facts  of  death,  murder  and 
misery  caused  by  whiskey ;  so  that  if  you  have  any 
sympathy  for  yourselves,  your  kindred,  or  for  mankind 
generally,  you  will  rise  up  in  rebellion  against  it. 

I  have  other  objects  in  view  in  telling  my  stories. 
There  are  many  other  evils  in  the  way  of  life  besides 
whiskey,  and  which  we  must  avoid  also,  if  we  would 
succeed. 

William  wished  to  prove  to  the  world  the  final  results 
of  a  business  conducted  on  principles  without  prece- 
dent in  his  country. 

Although  his  prosperity  seemed  to  him  as  firmly 
established  as  the  rare  fire-proof  store  wdiich  contained 
his  goods,  and,  although  he  had  money  to  spare,  he  often 
thought  of  his  resolve  to  see  Eome  and  its  Pope  ;  still, 
as  this  trip  would  cause  great  hindrance  and  perhaps 
loss,  or  the  closing  of  his  business  pro  tern.,  he  resolved 
to  give  up  the  pleasure. 

lie  hoped  that,  later  in  life,  something  might  occur  to- 


36 

enable  him  to  carry  out  this  resolve  of  his  boyhood  with 
out  injury  to  his  business. 

His  greatest  desire  was  to  prove  the  correctness  of  the 
model  principle  his  business  had  been  based  upon. 

When  this  resolve  to  travel  was  made,  he  declared  he 
did  not  expect  to  marry  soon,  if  ever ;  that  it  was  too 
2:reat  a  task  to  make  enough  money  with  a  capital  of  $5 
to  visit  Rome  and  support  a  wife  too.  But,  '*  Man  pro- 
poses and  God  disposes,"  and  he  has  sometimes  been 
inclined  to  believe,  indeed,  that  there  is  *'  a  divinity  that 
shapes  our  ends,  rough  hew  them  how  we  will." 

He  had  never  been  heard  to  speak  even  on  the  sub- 
ject of  marrying,  nor  had  he  shown  the  least  attention 
with  that  desire  to  any  lady ;  but,  there  is  a  time  in  the 
life  of  all  young  persons  when,  for  His  own  purposes, 
God  has  implanted  the  desire  for  a  family  and  home  of 
their  own  ;  but  now,  at  my  stage  of  life,  I  am  disposed 
to  believe  that  the  majority  of  these  persons  have 
their  judgments  obscured  by  imagination,  and  that  they 
have  neither  the  caution  nor  prudence  necessary  even  in 
the  most  ordinary  affairs  in  life. 

William  was  of  an  imaginative  and  poetical  tem- 
perament, as  I  may,  perhaps,  prove  to  you  when  we 
get  further  on. 

In  his  eighteenth  year,  at  a  distant  church,  he  saw  a 
strange  miss,  said  to  be  very  handsome ;  indeed,  he 
thought  so  too^  and  inquired  he  name.  Her  father  had 
bought  a  plantation  on  the  Roanoke  and  intended  to 
move  there  from  the  upper  country. 

William  did  not  seek  their  acquaintance  nor  speak  to 
them;  yet  this  miss,  as  he  looked  at  and  contemplated 
her  at  church,  caused  impressions  and  thoughts  to  arise 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  37 

in  his  mind,  as  well  as  to  remain  there,  that  no  other 
person  ever  did,  and  a  destiny  that  he  could  not  shake 
off  would  follow. 

A  few  years  passed.  He  became  acquainted  with  this 
young  woman,  then  grown,  at  his  own  store,  llis  first 
impressions  still  haunted  him :  that  this  woman  was  to 
be  his  wife.     (Dr.  Franklin  advised  early  marriage.) 

He  addressed  her;  married  in  haste  before  he  was 
twenty-one,  and  his  wife  only  sixteen. 

Some  people  speak  of  the  married  life  harshly,  and 
ill-naturedly  say  the  very  word  married  is  composed  of 
the  letters  which  make  mar  and  die,  two  horrible  words, 
and  that  matrimony  has  always  been  a  matter  of  money 
since  the  days  of  I^s'oah. 

AVilliam  had  forty  years'  of  experience  in  this  mat- 
ter, and  has  exercised  much  observation  in  regard  to  the 
marriage  of  others,  and  could  tell  long  stories  on  tiiis 
subject. 

But,  he  promised  you  only  short  stories,  and  you 
should,  even  thus  far  in  his  life,  think  his  word  was  his 
bond  in  everything,  and  punctuality  his  ruling  virtue. 

I  have  heard  him  say,  after  he  had  served  forty  years 
in  active  business,  that  he  would  give  any  man  one 
thousand  dollars  who  would  produce  a  single  instance 
of  his  failing  to  meet  any  engagement  at  the  time  set  for 
business  or  money. 

Well,  boys,  some  of  you  remember  the  old  copy-plate 
when  you  were  learning  to  write  :  "Punctality  is  the 
life  of  business."  (Xow  !  stick  a  pin  here,  and  you 
will  never  regret  it.) 

You  will  observe,  too, that  William  w\as  "oft-handed" 


38 

and  diligent  in  his  business,  and  it  is  not  remarkable 
that  he  should  have  married  young  and  in  haste,  encour- 
aged, too,  as  he  was,  by  the  saying  of  Dr.  Franklin. 

The  life  of  this  man  so  fascinated  him  that,  having  no 
day-time  time  to  spare,  he  read  through  the  book  in  one 
night,  by  the  light  of  pine  knots. 

The  last  syllable  of  the  word  marriage  is  "  age,"  and 
it  is  for  life,  and  should  not  be  classed  as  mer- 
chandise. 

Bad  goods  are  hard  to  dispose  of,  while  good  goods 
wear  well  and  help  the  vender;  but,  if  an  error  is  niade 
in  matrimony,  no  matter  of  money  can  buy  you  out 
of  it. 

"When  very  young  persons  marry  in  haste,  almost  at 
first  sight,  as  most  of  them  are  then  blind  and  inexpe- 
rienced, they  make  marriage  a  lottery,  in  which  you 
have  heard  there  are  so  many  blanks,  and,,  at  my  age,  I 
have  yet  to  see  the  man  who  drew  the  big  prize. 

Salomon  may  have  been  literal  in  his  proverb  when 
he  said :  "  He  that  findeth  a  wife  tindeth  a  good  thing, 
and  obtaineth  favour  of  the  Lord." 

Again,  it  is  said  "  Marry  in  haste  and  repent  at 
leisure."  The  last  syllable  of  this  word  marry  rhymes 
with  ''  cry."  The  ideal  of  the  young  will  not  be 
realized. 

I  have  heard  William  often  remark  that  many  words 
were  full  of  meaning,  if  we  would  only  dissect  and 
rb3'me  them. 

I  believe,  after  all,  however,  that  tlie  wedded  life  is 
ihe  proper  life  for  all  persons  of  sound  minds  and  bodies, 
imd  that  if  people  are  well  matched  and  act  deliberately 


39 

and  sensibly  in  this,  the  most  important  act  of  their 
lives,  if  not  happiness,  there  will,  at  least,  result  the 
greatest  alleviation  of  the  cares  and  sorrors  which  all 
men  have  to  bear  in  the  warfare  of  this  life. 

I  once  heard  a  crusty,  old  bachelor  asked  if  he  was 
ever  at  a  public  execution.  He  replied  no,  but  he  once 
saw  a  marriage. 

At  any  rate,  boys,  in  this  probable  and  most  impor- 
tant event  in  your  lives,  I  advise  you  to  be  circumspect, 
not  hasty;  and,  if  possible,  to  find  out,  before  you 
marry,  as  much  as  you  prudently  can  of  the  woman,  her 
family  and  training;  and  to  think  often  that  the  act  is  for 
life,  and  that  your  future  happiness  or  misery  depends 
on  this  step ;  also,  th/kt  your  success  or  failure  in  it, 
more  or  less,  influences  generations  to  come  after  you, 
"and  that  the  sins  of  the  father  are  visited  on  the  chil- 
dren to  the  third  and  fourth  generations." 

William's  marriage  entirely  changed  his  destiny,  and 
caused  him  to  have  stores  at  places  where  he  had  never 
dreamed  of  having  business,  and  to  come  in  contact  with 
eminent  persons,  and  to  occupy  positions  which  the 
most  romantic  would  not  have  imagined  possible. 

As  we  have  been  hastily  led  into  this  most  important 
event  in  the  life  of  man  (marriage),  we  will  make  the 
longest  story  on  this  subject,  and  will  try  to  bring  up 
some  incidents  that  may  profit  you  before  and  after  you 
have  doubled  yourself  for  life. 

William  had  not  the  usual  opportunities  of  testing 
wedded  life,  for  during  thirty  year  he  had  only  Sundays 
to  spend  with  his  family. 

He  always  refused  to  work  or  travel  on  Sundays,  even 
to  write  letters,   declaring   that   the    man    who  worked 


40  *'  CALAIS-MORALE." 

seven  days  in  the  week  would  become  bankrupt  in  body, 
mind,  or  estate,  and  he  strictly  adhered  to  this  rule 
through  a  long  life,  filled  with  as  much  or  even  more 
business  than  he  ever  saw  any  other  man  carry. 

Much  of  his  experience  in  married  life  was  gathered 
from  others,  from  behind  the  counter,  from  the  pur- 
chases, and  the  run  of  the  accounts  of  his  customers. 

He  knew  nothing  of  the  afiairs  of  the  kinsfolk  of  his 
wife,  except  her  father ;  that  he  owed  him  double  the 
amount  that  any  other  of  his  customers  did,  and  that, 
when  he  commenced  this  debt,  he  came  to  the  store  and 
said  he  had  made  a  large  purchase  of  land  on  the 
Roanoke ;  had  sold  some  of  his  land  and  had  more  to 
sell,  the  money  for  which  w^as  to  pay  the  balance  of  his 
purchase-money  here. 

He  said  that  if  he  could  get  credit  for  two  or  three 
years  on  fair  terms  that  his  purchases  would  be  consid- 
erable, and  that  he  would  trade  with  William. 

His  proposition  was  accepted,  and  he  had  never  been 
asked  for  a  dollar  of  his  debt. 

It  snowed  slightly  on  the  wedding-day,  February  5th, 
1835. 

A  friend,  who  had  been  groomsman,  had  taken 
srrievous  offense  from  a  mistaken  construction  of  a 
remark  made  to  him  at  the  wedding,  which  William 
had  to  explain  the  next  day. 

The  old  man  sent  for  him  and  told  him  that  he  had  a 
chronic  disease,  inherited  from  his  mother,  which  inca- 
pacitated him  for  any  business  at  times ;  that  he  had 
made  a  fortune  by  his  own  labor  and  industry ;  had 
married  late  in  life  ;  had  lost  considerable  money  by  his 
wife's  kin ;  had  a  o-ood  estate  free  of  debt,  before   he 


41 

purchased  this  now  pUice,  which  was  unhealthy  ;  he  had 
lost  nearly  every  crop  hy  sickness  since  he  had  been 
there;  the  late  freshet  in  the  river  had  completely 
ruined  his  last  crop,  which  loss,  together  with  the 
expenses  for  timber  and  material  for  a  large  mill,  had 
terribly  embarrassed  him. 

He  was  being  sued  for  a  large  amount  yet  due  on  hi& 
lands  and  had  given  a  mortgage  to  others  for  borrowed 
money  on  several  of  his  slaves,  and  w^ent  on  to  say  that, 
with  good  management  and  the  recovering  of  the 
amounts  due  him  up  the  country,  a  considerable  sum 
might  be  saved  from  tlie  wreck  of  his  estate. 

As  WilUam  had  married  his  daughter  (one  of  four 
children)  he  had  an  interest  in  the  property  saved. 

Would  or  could  he  take  the  management  of  all  hi& 
father-in-law's  affairs,  and  save  what  he  could  for  his 
children  ? 

Their  mother  had  died  two  years  before,  of  the  sick- 
ness peculiar  to  the  place.  The  father  had  nothing  but 
losses  from  the  day  he  had  come  to  it.  He  had  no  other 
person  to  ask  to  help  him  in  his  distress,  and  his  whole 
estate  must  soon  go  to  ruin. 

What  could  William  say  ?  He  knew  that  Jacob  was 
cheated  in  his  marriage,  and  had  served  even  fourteen 
years  for  Rachel.  Should  he  not  serve  a  year  or  so  after 
bavins:  married  his  wife  ? 

The  old  man  was  very  despondent,  too,  and  what 
could  he  say  but  "  yes  ?  " 

Though  a  novice  in  this  sort  of  business,  and  having 
many  affairs  of  his  own  to  attend  to,  he  would  do  the 
best  he  could  to  extricate  and  to  save  all  that  could  be 
saved  of  the  property. 


42 

If  the  plantation  could  be  sold  it  would  help  much, 
and  he  mentioned  several  rich  men  who  might  buy  it. 

He  had  advised  with  his  father's  friend  in  regard  to 
his  intention  of  marrying.  He  had  advised  him  not  to 
marry,  if  he  could  honorably  avoid  it. 

AYilliam  said  he  could  not.  No  reasons  were  asked 
for  this  counsel,  therefore  none  were  given  ;  but,  doubt- 
less, this  friend  saw  the  troubles  before  looming  in  the 
distance. 

There  was  no  time  to  lose  ;  so,  next  day,  William  rode 
nianv  miles  to  see  the  first  man  who  he  had  thou2:ht 
might  buy  the  land  (4,000  acres.) 

This  person  did  not  wish  to  purchase  it,  so  on  the  next 
day  AVilliam  went  to  his  store  to  curtail  his  business  and 
to  put  it  in  the  hands  of  a  clerk,  who,  fortunately,  he 
had  in  a  cousin.  This  man  had  been  brought  up  to 
work  in  a  store,  and  had  come  over  one  hundred  miles 
to  visit  his  relations. 

After  entrusting  to  him  his  affairs,  William  rode  on 
horseback  several  hundred  miles  to  get  a  delay  of  the 
suit,  by  becoming  personally  responsible,  through  the 
kindness  of  his  first  friend,  X.  M.  M.,  heretofore  named, 
in  Petersburg. 

Again,  he  went  a  hundred  miles  up  the  country  to  free 
one  of  his  slaves,  working  on  the  James  river  canal, 
from,  an  attachment  for  debt,  and  to  sell  some  small 
tracts  of  poor  lands  in  an  adjoining  county.  He  then 
visited  all  the  other  persons  he  had  named  as  probable 
purchasers  of  the  land. 

The  crash  of  1836  was  looming  in  the  distance,  and 
the  sale  of  lands  was  improbable  at  even  half  their 
nominal  value. 


43 

On  the  plantation  were  twenty  liorses  and  thirty  or 
forty  slaves,  but  neither  corn  or  fodder. 

The  wheat  made  on  the  place  and  left  by  the  freshet 
remained  in  rotten  shucks,  and  the  scythes  with  which 
it  was  cut  had  been  left  hanging  in  the  fields  for  the 
past  six  months  ;  the  overseer  had  become  sick,  and  had 
deserted  for  his  up-country  home ;  the  mill-dam  on  the 
little  river  had  been  washed  away  in  the  big  freshet ; 
and  the  immense  timbers  for  the  new  mill  were  lying  in 
ruinous  confusion ;  everything  was  in  bad  condition 
except  the  tine  mansion  in  which  the  family  resided. 

William  said  that  he  had  heard  of  matrimony  as  a 
matter  of  money,  but  with  him  it  was  a  matter  of  debts 
which  rhymed  with  frets,  though  no  one  ever  saw  or 
heard  him  fret  in  any  way  up  to  the  day  of  his  marriage. 

With  all  of  these  unexpected  and  new^  troubles,  he 
had  many  disagreeable  duties  to  perform  in  order  to 
fulfil  his  promise  made  unexpectedly  and  under  peculiar 
circumstances,  but  he  tried  to  be  faithful  at  any  sacrifice 
of  his  business  and  personal  comfort. 

An  overseer  was  hired  in  February  ;  a  mill-dam  built; 
the  sixty-five  feet  long  timbers  for  rafters  for  the  new 
mill-house  out  up  to  construct  a  new  mill-house  of 
moderate  dimensions  (the  former  flour-manufacturing 
mill  had  been  burned);  and  a  small  temporary  mill- 
house  was  built  for  one-run  of  corn-stones,  which  gave 
food  for  the  horses  and  family,  from  the  tolls. 

The  tobacco  crop  was  good  and  was  sold  for  fifteen 
dollars  per  hundred.  The  other  crops  also  were  attended 
to.  Oats  and  feed  were  sold  at  full  prices  to  the  rail- 
road contractors,  and  with  some  help  from  the  agent, 
and  the  sale  of  some  negroes,  the  lars^e  details  in   suit, 


44  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

the  mortgages,  and  all  the  demanded  debts  were  paid. 
,  The  mill  was  completed  w  ith  four-run  of  stones,  and 
in  two  years,  in  the  prime  of  his  life,  William,  by  his 
own  control  and  direction,  had  brought  this  Babel  of 
debt  into  order,  and  had  a  fair  show  for  at  least  twenty 
thousand  dollars  in  value  left  for  the  estate,  as  well  as 
another  heir  for  it. 

His  own  affairs  had  been  left  pretty  much  to  his  clerk, 
who  literally  carried  out  his  orders  and  instructions,  and 
never  resided  again  at  his  old  home. 

Disease  and  despondency  had  brought  on  the  old  man 
premature  dotage,  and  when  he  saw  his  affairs  cleared 
up  from  inconceivable  confusion,  and  a  decent  estate 
saved  from  the  wreck,  he  gave  his  married  daughter, 
who  had  kept  house  for  him,  a  place  on  the  land  about  a 
mile  from  the  mansion  house,  which  had  been  built  for 
health,  and  for  the  former  owners  to  live  in  during  the 
sickly  season.  It  was  valued  at  fourteen  hundred 
dollars,  lie  also  gave  her  a  nurse  valued  at  five 
hundred  dollars.  His  debt  to  William  had  been 
increased,  and  not  a  dollar  paid. 

It  is  said  that  regrets  are  burdens  which  a  brave  man 
must  cast  off;  the  Hebrew  word  for  riches, is  more  fre- 
quently translated  heavy;  he  who  loses  anything  and 
gains  wisdom  thereby,  has  made  no  loss ;  nothing  is 
more  difficult  to  find  than  a  good  husband,  unless  it  be 
a  good  wife. 

William's  most  earnest  prayer  to  God  was  for  wisdom, 
and  knowledge  was  his  first  and  main  desire. 

These  two  years  of  adversity,  labor,  and  trials,  with 
sickness  and  debt,  taught  him  lessons  that  he  could  not 
have  learned  in  any  other  school,  and  although  the  sick- 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  45 

,10??,  fine  to  his  residence  and  frequent  exposure  on  the 
vivcr  bud  left  an  enduring  sallow  tinge  on  liis  former 
rosy  checks,  as  well  as  sometimes  a  sad  and  thoughtful 
shadow  on  his  heretofore  cheerful  face,  he  digested  and 
examined  these  lessons  of  his  life,  and  looked  around 
for  means  to  repair  losses  and  to  meet  increasing 
expenses,  consoling  himself  with  the  reflection  that  the 
glory  is  not  in  never  falling,  but  in  rising  every  time  we 

fall.  ,     ,         .„ 

He   frequentlv   sat  np  all  night  to  watch  the  m.lls 
crrindino-  grist  for  railroad  contractors,  and  then  went 
on  the  boat  to  Gaston  to  deliver  it,  and  returned  in  the 
ni'Tht  five  miles  through  the  almost  constant  falls  of  that 
rocky  and  difficult  navigation,   and  oftentimes  he  got 
into  the  water  to  help  the  tired  boatmen  to  lift  the  boat 
oif  the  rocks,  and  arrived   at  home  at  midnight,  wet, 
wearv,  and  perspiring  from  the  reaction  of   a   recent 
chill  •  but  he  was  laboring  against  a  big  debt,  and  never 
shirked  labor  of  any  kind  if  he  could  only  forward  and 
perfect  his  projects. 

In   describing  so  many  of  WUliam^s  acts,  I  wish   to 

o-ive  you  an  example  to  follow,  as  well  as  to  tell  you  ot 

The  things  vou  must  shun,  and  if  you   are  too  young  to 

understand  moralizing    and    philosophizing,  you  must 

keep  the  book,  read  it  as  you  grow  older,  and  you  will 

then  find  many  reflections  worth  more  to  you  than  gold. 

I  have  so  much  material  to  select  from  to  make  up  a 

small  and  proper  book  for  you  that  I  am  frequently  at  a 

loss  what  to  write,  what  to  select,  and  how  to  arrange 

my  thoughts  so  as  to  be  of  greatest  advantage  to  fou, 

and  to  draw  your  attention  to  them. 

My  motive  is  the  same  as  William's  when  he  refused 
to  sell  whiskey  at  all  hazards. 


46  "  CALAIS-MORALE.-' 

AVere  it  not  said  that  truths  are  often  stranger  than 
fiction,  I  should  be  disposed  to  hij  down  my  pen  in 
despair;  but  I  know  that  there  are  good  men  living  who 
do  care  for  mankind,  and  that  they  will  appreciate  my 
work  and  my  motives,  and  make  due  allow^ance  for  this 
first  attempt  to  write  a  book. 

I  know  also  there  is  a  God  who  governs  all  things^ 
and  if  he  approves  of  my  work,  success  is  certain. 

If  any  of  my  writings  should  cause  some  boys,  some 
youths,  and  some  young  men,  at  the  most  critical  period 
of  their  lives,  to  pursue,  follow,  and  cling  to  the  right  at 
all  hazards,  then  I  shall  have  accomplished  something 
to  repay  me  for  my  labor  and  trouble. 

AYell,  boys,  I  find  that  our  last  story  carried  us  slightly 
out  of  our  path  and  into  the  ways  of  men.  But  recol- 
lect that  you  are  to  grow^  up  and  be  men ;  and  I  wish  to 
impress  upon  your  minds  that  there  are  bad  men  and 
scood  uien ;  that  there  are  useful  and  useless  men  ;  that 
many  useful  men  live  out  the  number  of  days  allotted 
to  man,  whereas  the  wicked,  as  Solomon,  says,  live  out 
only  half  of  their  days,  and  that  the  seeds  for  the  dis- 
eases that  carried  them  off  are  planted  in  their  youth, 
and  that  there  is  only  one  way  to  avoid  this  destiny. 

Oh,  that  I  could  give  proper  expression  to  thoughts, 
and  allure  you  into  the  w^ays  that  lead  not  to  this  sad 
end  ! 

We  left  "William  both  quickly  and  largely  paid  in 
this  world  for  a  novel  and  unexampled  act  in  defense 
of  what  he  believed  to  be  right  and  in  opposition  to  the 
long-established  custom  of  the  country  in  which  he 
lived.  He  had  not  regarded  the  threats  of  his  patrons 
nor  the  probable  destruction  of  his  prosperous  business. 


47 

All  may  have,  if  they  dare  try,  a  glorious  life  or 
grave,  and,  though  security  is  the  caution  of  narrow 
minds,  as  fire  tries  gold,  so  does  difficulty  and  hazard 
test  virtuous  minds. 

Shakespeare  says  ''All  the  world's  a  stage,  and  all  the 
men  and  women  players." 

I  say,  "  act  well  your  part,  there  all  the  honor  lies," 
and  that  life  itself  is  neither  good  nor  evil,  but  only  a 
place  for  good  and  evil ;  it  is  a  kind  of  tragi-comedy. 
Let  it  be  well  acted,  no  matter  whether  it  be  long 
or  short. 

Dishonesty  cannot,  from  the  peculiar  nature  of  its 
diverging  tendency,  continue  long  successful.  Integrity 
in  the  moral  world  is  what  in  science  is  termed  the 
attraction  of  cohesion ;  without  its  cementing  qualities 
and  properties  no  scheme  can  answer,  no  purpose  suc- 
ceed. 

The  volume  of  nature  is  the  hook  of  knowledge,  and 
he  becomes  most  wise  who  makes  the  most  judicious 
selections. 

The  constant  attention  that  William's  business  re- 
quired had  gradually  curtailed  and  linally  prevented  the 
completion  of  his  historical  course  of  reading,  and  he 
was  prematurely  freed  to  commence  the  above-named 
book,  which  it  requires  a  lifetime  to  read. 

I  cannot  deny,  after  reading  it  myself  for  more  than 
fifty  years,  that  this  book,  yEsop's  Fables,  and  the  Bible, 
are  quite  enough  books  for  most  men  to  read,  and  that 
I  value  them  more  than  all  the  others  that  I  have  either 
seen  or  read. 

These  books  never  tire,  are  always  fresh  to  the  mind, 
and  if  you  are  disposed  to  read,  you  can  peruse  them 
with  pleasure  and  profit  every  day  of  your  lives. 


48  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

William's  first  lesson  in  the  big  endless  volume  men- 
tioned made  a  strong  impression  on  his  mind  and  encour- 
aged him  to  mark  and  write  down  in  after  life  some  of 
the  results  to  those  who  drank  or  sold  whiskey,  as  w^ell 
as  other  things  which  carried  evil  into  his  mind,  and 
which  caused  many  persons  to  go  astray  and  miscarry 
and  be  disappointed  in  all  their  expectations  in  life,  fill 
up  the  ranks  of  the  drunkards,  frequently  leaving  their 
wives  and  children  in  poverty  and  woe. 

"William,  by  accident,  saw  in  Petersburg  a  man  of 
this  sort — E.  A. — who  had  left  his  wife  and  children  in 
deep  poverty,  and  had  enlisted  in  the  first  company  of 
soldiers  soon  to  sail  for  the  Mexican  war.  As  soon  as 
he  got  an  opportunity  to  speak  to  him,  he  asked  him 
what  he  had  done  with  his  family.  Though  as  brave  as 
a  lion,  his  lips  quivered,  tears  dropped  from  his  eyes, 
and  yet  he  could  give  no  answer.  The  company  moved 
oflt*,  and  the  soldier  heard  the  words,  "  Your  children 
shall  be  cared  for." 

As  soon  as  possible,  William  rode  ten  miles  to  learn 
of  their  condition.  There  was  a  deep  snow  on  the 
ground,  and  these  children  had  gone  barefoot  through 
the  snow^  to  beg  for  something  to  eat. 

The  overseers  of  the  poor  had  heard  of  this  fact,  and 
sent  them  ten  miles  further  on  to  the  poor-house.  But 
William  sent  for  them,  gave  one  a  home  at  his  house, 
and  secured  good  places  for  the  others. 

Their  father  never  returned  to  his  deserted  and 
poverty-stricken  home.  He  had  not  read  the  Bible, 
perhaps,  or  did  not  believe  the  words  of  the  proverb 
w^hich  says,  "  The  drunkard  and  the  glutton  shall  surely 
come  to  want." 


49 

He  had  the  ohl  Almanac's  motto,  every  day,  before 
him:  "He  that  would  thrive,  must  himself  either  hold 
or  drive,"  and  although  he  had  a  good  clerk  at  his  almost 
deserted  store,  of  about  his  own  age,  he  had  seen  every 
time  he  visited  it,  that  the  want  of  his  personal  attention 
and  management  would  slowly,  but  certainly,  destroy 
his  business.  He  wished  to  avoid  closing  by  auction 
and  bringing  suit  against  customers,  for  he  determined 
that  this  country  store,  at  least,  should  not  be  a  country 
curse,  or  return  evil  for  the  good  which  its  customers 
gave  to  it. 

This  was  carried  out  to  the  letter,  at  this,  as  well  as  at 
his  three  other  stores  during  the  following  thirty  years. 
There  were  no  sales  by  auction  at  closing,  no  suits  at 
law,  nor  distress  to  any  patron  in  any  way,  and  I  have 
often  heard  it  said,  that  William  had  made  more  money 
and  lost  less  in  bad  debts  or  accidents,  (from  his  first 
capital,  five  dollars)  than  any  other  living  man. 

Should  not  this  be  a  strong  card  in  favor  of  temper- 
ance in  all  things,  as  w^ell  as  against  selling  whiskey,  and 
a  proof  that  in  our  secular  aflairs,  if  w^e  would  succeed, 
we  must  abstain  from  the  appearance  of  evil,  however 
temptation  may  try  us. 

Xow,  boys,  let  us  look  into  this  wo^'d,  so  prominent  in 
the  Lord's  prayer. 

The  Dictionary  interprets  this  word  in  many  ways,  all 
as  leading  to  evil.  Fly  it,  avoid  it,  pass  not  by  it.  It  is 
the  prince  of  wickedness,  full  of  evil.  More  than  fifty 
years  ago,  at  the  Eagle  Hotel,  in  the  city  of  Eichmond, 
William  was  sitting  after  supper,  after  a  hard  day's  work, 
in  the  veranda  that  surrounded  the  open  "  piazza"  of 
this  errand  hotel.     He  was  a  youth  and  stranger,  except 

4 


50 

to  a  few  merchants,  and  was  alone  with  no  one  to  talk 
to.  His  rule  through  life  was,  never  to  speak  the  first 
word  to  any  strangers  whatever. 

A  venerable  old  man  came  to  him,  took  a  seat,  and 
commenced  a  conversation,  and  presently  asked  him  if 
he  had  ever  seen  a  Faro-Bank. 

He  answered,  no;  but  he  bad  read  of  them  in  a  book 
called  "  Hoyle." 

The  old  man  then  described  them,  and  particularly  the 
one  at  the  farther  corner  of  the  veranda,  where  he 
pointed  to  a  small  and  scarcely  perceptible  light,  and 
said,  that  to  visit  this  place  it  was  not  necessary  that 
every  one  should  bet  against  the  bank  ;  that  gentlemen 
visited  it,  and  that  the  rooms  were  elegant.  They  kept 
a  free  table  with  ^the  best  and  rarest  liquors,  game  and 
meats. 

"William  may  have  inherited  his  mother's  curiosity.  I 
have  often  heard  him  say,  that  he  no  doubt  had  inherited 
much  of  her  loquacity.  So  having  nothing  else  to  da 
before  bed-time  (note  here  boys,  the  idle  man  is  never 
out  of  danger),  he  consented  to  go  with  the  stranger. 

After  passing  the  dim  light  mentioned,  in  a  place 
wide  enough  only  for  one  person  to  go  forward,  and  af- 
ter various  v>'indings,  he  was  led  to  a  closed  door,  through 
which  there  was  a  hole,  and  which  admitted  light  to  the 
dark  way. 

The  old  man  knocked  at  the  door,  a  person  looked 
through  the  hole,  heard  some  sign  or  word,  or  knew  the 
face  of  the  old  man,  and  we  were  immediately  admitted 
and  all  the  old  man  told  him  was  more  than  realized  in 
the  real  facts  and  appearance  of  things.  Still,  I  have 
often  heard  William  say,  in  regard  to  this  adventure^ 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  51 

that  as  he  was  passing  through  the  dark  and  intricate 
way,  and  whilst  seated  and  looking  at  this  splendid  es- 
tal'Iishment,  his  first  thought  was  of  the  stories  he  had 
read,  of  decoys  and  robhers;  of  Moses,  in  the  ''Yicar  of 
Wakefiehl,"  and  then  of  yEsop's  fable  of  the  sick  Hon 
that  invited  all  the  beasts  to  see  bini,  and  of  the  reason 
the  fox  gave  for  refusing  to  go  in. 

He  had  about  two  thousand  dollars  of  his  own  money 
in  his  pocket ;  but  he  was  the  only  person  in  existence 
that  knew  this  fact. 

Ilowever,  he  looked  on  the  game  and  its  abettors.  It 
was  conducted  genteely  and  quietly,  the  stakes  and  the 
hazard  absorbed  all  attention  ;  the  rapid  passing  of  white 
and  red  ivory  "  chips"  or  counters,  and  the  dealing  of 
the  cards  kept  all  interested.  Occasionally,  there  w^as 
*' coppering,"  an  ominous  word,  as  the  betters  lose  by  this 
one-half  their  stakes,  by  some  said  to  be  the  only  advan- 
tage the  bank  has.  "In  my  eye"  the  cards  have  no 
passions,  full  capital  to  back  them,  and  perhaps  other 
advantages,  whilst  the  betters  against  the  bank  are  weak 
at  all  these  points. 

At  this  bank,  a  general,  a  university  student,  and  a 
profligate  young  man  of  a  good  family  (perhaps  a  de- 
coy), were  betting.  The  latter  often  got  broke,  and  bor- 
rowed money  of  the  bank,  until  they  would  lend  him  no 
more ;  the  general  and  the  university  youth  would  pay 
the  cash  and  buy  more  *'  chips." 

'\Vhen  the  bank  had  won  their  stake,  William  was  in- 
vited to  eat  of  their  game.  The  liquors  were  so  plentiful 
and  temptingly  placed,  that  they  seemed  to  need  no  in- 
vitation to  recommend  them.  Of  course,  his  lixed  re- 
solve was  against  this  thing;  still,  there  was  a  fascination 


52 

and  a  temptation  to  bet  on  this  game.  After  looking 
on  it,  for  a  time,  it  seemed  irresistible.  But,  be  reflected 
what  his  old  comrades  would  think  and  saj  of  one  who 
had  refused  to  bet  or  play  cards  with  them,  and  whom 
some  of  them  dubbed  "the  preacher  against  gambling 
in  any  way."  He  had  eaten  of  this  forbidden  fruit,  he 
sat  by  and  seemed  interested  in  fortune's  freaks,  and,  of 
course,  he  had  visited  the  place  of  his  own  free  will,  and 
"to  say  the  least,  he  must  feel  in  some  sort  the  aider  and 
abettor  of  the  game. 

William,  by  these  things,  was  tempted  to  ask  of  ^he 
dealer  if  he  would  take  Georgia  money.  The  answer 
was,  I  will  take  any  sort. 

He  had  a  ten  dollar  uncurrent  Georgia  bank  note,  on 
which  he  had  loaned  a  slow  customer  five  dollars  some 
twelve  months  before,  to  be  redeemed  at  the  same  jorice 
soon.  He  had  never  called  for  it,  or  offered  to  comply 
with  this  promise,  and  these  were  good  reasons  to  sup- 
pose that  he  never  would  do  so. 

"William  recollected  Hoyle's  remarks  upon  the  least 
hazardous  bet  at  this  game,  and,  although  the  game 
might  have  one  hundred  per  cent,  advantage,  yet  he  had 
the  same  in  the  cost  of  his  Georgia  bill.  At  any  rate, 
if  he  could  get  half  of  its  nominal  value,  he  would  lose 
nothing,  and  have  current  money  to  spend,  and  he  had 
eaten  of  the  game,  too ;  feasted  at  least  the  value  of  the 
six  per  cent,  interest  on  the  five  dollars. 

Boys,  let  one  say  in  parenthesis,  that  William  was  a 
stickler  for  six  per  cent.,  the  lawful  interest  on  money; 
and  often  he  refused  to  ask  or  take  higher  rates.  With 
these  reflections  and  temptations,  he  took  the  ten  dollars 
worth  in  counters,  betted   according  to   Hoyle — small 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  5^ 

sums  at  a  time— wliilst  the  larger  betting  of  others  car- 
ried more  of  tlie  attention  of  the  dealer,  and  he  won 
nearly  evovy  bet,  which  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
General,  who,  though  he  had  not  said  a  word  for  an 
hour,  remarked,  "if  I  had  your  luck,  I  would 
have  broken  the  bank." 

The  town  clock  tolled  his  usual  early  bed-time. 

William  passed  up  his  counters  and  received  the 
twenty  odd  dollars  he  had  won.  He  was  sent  to  a  two> 
bedded  room,  and  went  to  sleep  at  a  late  hour  of  the 
night. 

The  student  came  in,  he  supposed,  to  go  to  bed ;  but 
it  was  to  unlock  his  trunk  and  get  more  money  to  bet  at 
Faro.  He  attempted,  in  vain,  to  persuade  him  to  go  to 
bed,  and  not  to  risk  more  money  at  so  hazardous  a  game. 
He  never  saw  the  student  again. 

Perhaps  the  fox's  remark  would  apply  to  him.  Is  it 
possible  that  liis  penchant  for  this  game  was  acquired  at 
the  university. 

William's  winnings  with  the  Georgia  State  note 
paid  more  than  all  of  his  expenses  to  Richmond,  and 
he  thought  it  impossible  that  any  of  his  acquaintances 
could  ever  know  of  this  "  slip  "  of  his. 

Somehow,  he  never  could  mix  this  money  satisfac- 
torily with  the  honest  earnings  of  his  business,  and  his. 
pecadillo  after  awhile  was  exposed  to  the  very  com- 
rades he  had  lectured  so  often  about  cards  and 
gambling. 

lie  was  invited  to  a  distant  wedding  of  one  of  his 
schoolmates.  His  business  had  kept  him  at  the  store  to  the 
last  minute,  and  he  was  about  the  last  of  the  guests  to 
arrive. 


54  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

He  was  directed  to  a  hall  in  which  a  number  of  per- 
sons were  standing  in  conversation. 

As  he  entered  the  door,  an  old  man  spoke  in  a  high 
tone  of  voice,  pointing  his  finger  at  him  :  "  That  is  the 
young  man,  whose  name  I  do  not  know,  whom  I  was 
trying  to  discover  in  this  county.  I  have  already  told 
you  of  his  fight  with  and  success  against  the  "tiger"  at 
Kichmond." 

These  words  came  like  a  thunder-stroke.  William 
blushed  black  and  blue,  and  acknowledged  the  facts. 

You  will  see,  boys,  from  this  story,  that  temptation 
can  lead  us  to  dark  deeds,  and  that  these  deeds,  however 
obscure,  are  liable  to  be  exposed  before  men  when  we 
least  expect  it. 

Know,  also,  that  there  is  a  God,  wdio  sees  and  notes 
our  every  act  and  thought  in  this  world,  and  to  whom 
there  is  no  place  of  concealment. 

William  ran  a  greater  risk  than  merely  losing  his 
money;  and  what  is  called  "  luck"  in  this  world  is  far 
more  dangerous  than  adversity  to  all  men.  It  will  lead 
us  into  temptation. 

This  unexpected  adventure  had  shifted  his  poise,  and, 
had  he  been  induced  to  use  any  of  the  two  thousand 
dollars  in  his  pocket,  the  chances  are  against  him  that 
he,  too,  would  have  gone  with  the  student  into  the 
<'  lion's  den,"  never  to  return. 

After  fifty  years  of  experience  in  life,  I  have  heard 
him  say  that  he  considered  this  action  the  greatest  risk 
of  his  life,  and  that  he  gained  a  most  lasting  lesson 
from  it. 

He  learned  the  name  of  the  old  man,  who  lived  in  an 
adjoining  county ;  found  that  he  bred  race-horses,  and 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  55 

had  been  wluit  the  world  terras  a  genteel  gambler  all  his 
life. 

lie  never  knew  what  became  of  him,  but  one  of  his 
sons  married  a  schoolmate  and  distant  connection  of 
his,  and  was  a  professed  "  Faro  "  dealer ;  lived  a  most 
miserable  life,  and  died  the  most  awful  death  that  he 
he  ever  heard  a  doctor  describe.  Some  of  this  man's 
family  lias  begged  of  William,  by  letters,  since 
the  war, 

Kow,  boys,  this  gambhng  and  temptation  story  has 
been  much  longer  than  I  intended.  I  could  recite  many 
others,  of  less  tediousness,  but  all  of  them  convey  the 
same  lesson,  and  I  should  have  to  speak  of  murders, 
suicides,  thefts,  and  other  dreadful  things,  not  suitable 
for  the  ears  of  boys. 

Life  itself  is  enough  of  a  game  for  honest  men  to 
contend  with,  and,  as  you  learn  it  better,  your  curiosity 
to  see  and  play  at  games  of  chance  will  diminish,  and 
you  will  learn  that  it  is  so  much  easier  to  avoid  than  to 
withstand  temptation. 

ISTow,  boys,  we  will  return  to  William's  story  of  his 
home  life.  We  left  him  speculating  how  to  make  up 
the  two  years  lost  to  his  business,  as  well  as  how  to  keep 
up  with  the  increasing  family  expenses. 

The  late  crash  in  the  money  market  had  cast  a  gloom 
over  buisness  and  affairs  generally. 

About  half-way  to  Gaston,  on  the  river,  there  was  a 
bad  place,  near  the  shore,  either  for  running  a  boat 
down  or  for  pushing  it  up  empty,  called  by  the  boats- 
men  the  "  Mouse  Gap." 

There  he  had  done  some  hard  and  wet  work  to  assist 


56 

his  boatmen,  and  bad  some  times  stopped  on  the  bank 
of  the  river  to  rest. 

At  this  point  there  was  an  immense  pile  of  fresh 
quarried  stone,  which  the  builders  of  the  Gaston  bridge 
had  left  as  not  fit  for  their  purposes. 

One  of  the  boatmen  remarked,  "  Here  are  enough 
good  stones  to  build  a  house,"  and  as  William  had  built 
one  stone  house,  he  thought  of  another,  and  considered 
the  suggestion. 

Gaston  being  the  terminus  of  the  first  railroad  in  the 
country,  the  centre  of  a  large  river  navigation  trade> 
and  of  much  neigborhood  custom,  and,  there  being  only 
one  apparently  flourishing  store  in  the  place,  he  con« 
eluded  it  must  be  a  good  place  for  another  store. 

But  the  locality  was  dreadfully  sickly;  ten  miles 
distant  from  his  home,  with  no  labor,  except  such  hire- 
lings as  chance  allowed. 

The  month  of  August  had  come.  His  father-in-law 
had  too  much  business  of  his  own,  and  there  was  no 
help  to  be  had  or  expected  of  him. 

Many  other  things  besides  were  well  calculated  to 
deter  him,  and  to  hinder  even  further  thought  on  this 
subject. 

But  some  of  his  triumphs,  in  his  own  business,  over 
difficulties  which  seemed  impracticable,  came,  however,, 
to  his  mind,  and  then  he  recalled  the  old  adage  that  he 
had  read  from  some  of  his  ol-d  school-books :  "  That  is  the 
thing  I  would  be  at !  Stand  firm  in  that  difficulty  where 
*  Phoebus  '  himself  trembles."  And  another  :  "  That  it 
is  the  prerogative  of  true  genius  to  produce  great  effect 
from  inconsiderable  sources." 


57 

So,  to  Gaston  he  went.  ITe  paid  three  hundred  dol- 
lars for  a  quarter  of  an  acre  of  land,  on  the  river  bank  ; 
bought  the  pile  of  stone,  as  they  lay,  for  a  small  sum,  as 
they  were  of  no  value  to  the  owners  of  the  land. 

He  met,  by  accident,  a  young  Irish  stone-cutter,  who 
had  just  completed  his  contracts,  on  the  railroad,  and 
who  offered  to  put  up  his  store-house,  by  the  perch,  at  a 
low  rate,  and  to  get  as  many  country  stone-masons  as 
were  needed,  at  a  dollar  a  day,  to  assist  in  the  w^ork,  so 
as  to  get  it  done  in  three  months. 

He  hired  boats  and  laborers  at  low  rates,  and  worked 
every  day  with  them. 

The  earth  from  the  cellar  was  sand,  plenty  of  water 
was  to  be  gotten  from  the  river,  just  at  the  door,  lime 
came  by  the  railroad,  so  nothing  was  lacking  or  hard  to 
get,  and,  on  the  eighth  of  :^s:ovember,  the  house  was 
completed  and  covered  with  sheet-iron. 

When  the  builder  finished  the  cellar  door,  he  held  up 
his  hands,  with  the  blood  trickUng  from  his  fingers,  the 
effect  of  the  cold  and  the  lime,  and  exclaimed:  "You 
see,  the  job  is  complete,  but  it  has  brought  the  blood 
from  my  hands." 

This  man  was  the  best,  most  expert  and  faithful  work- 
men,  by  far,  that  William  had  ever  seen. 

Some  of  the  Northern  bridge-builders  offered  to  put 
up  the  shelving  of  the  store,  and,  although  much  of  the 
work  was  done  by  moonlight,  there  was  neither  accident 
nor  sickness  among  the  laborers,  and  the  goods  and 
clerk  were  in  the  store  in  November. 

The  short  time  at  command,  and  the  certainty  of 
cold  weather,   which    would   have     stopped   the   work 


58  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

entirely,  offered  a  strong  temptation  to  set  the  laborers 
to  work  on  Sundays,  but  that  was  strictly  prohibited, 
for  the  old  couplet  on  the  Sabbath  day  was  ever  fresh  to 
William's  mind  : 

*'  A  Sabbath  well  spent 
Brings  a  week  of  content, 

And  strength  for  the  toils  of  to-morrow ; 
But  a  Sabbath  profaned, 
Whatever  is  gained, 

Is  the  sure  forerunner  of  sorrow." 

I^ot  a  man  who  was  employed  in  any  way  about  the 
building  of  this  store  was  ever  seen  to  take  a  drink  of 
"whiskey. 

There  had  been  no  objection  made  to  it  or  request  on 
the  subject,  although,  within  fifty  yards  of  the  building, 
there  was  the  worst  and  most  frequented  bar-room 
inaaginable. 

In  this  connection,  I  must  tell  you  of  one  sober- 
drunkard  (he  had  no  money  to  buy  whiskey),  who  came 
to  William. 

Though  he  was  not  needed,  for  there  were  already 
-enough  stone-carriers  engaged,  he  begged  to  be  per- 
mitted to  wheel-barrow  stone,  in  order  to  earn  enough 
money  to  buy  a  shirt. 

He  was  ragged  and  dirty ;  but  William  recognized 
him  as  an  old  schoolmate,  whose  father  had  left  a  large 
fortune,  made  by  merchandise.  By  drinking  he,  bad 
reduced  himself  to  this  point. 

In  due  time  the  store,  established  in  Gaston,  had  more 
customers  than  William  and  all  of  his  clerks  could  serve. 


59 

It  was  the  only  store,  he  ever  knew,  where  buyers  waited 
through  the  clay,  and  yet,  did  not  get  their  turn,  to  be 
waited  on ;  they  wouKl  come  back  the  next  day  with  the 
cash  in  their  pockets  to  buy  their  goods ;  an(]  this  was 
the  case  when  there  were  two  other  stores  in  the  place, 
whicli  liad  the  same  kind  of  goods. 

These  customers  were  almost  strangers  ;  but  this  fact 
should  prove  that  all  men  are  more  or  less  attracted  by 
what  they  know  to  be  right,  though  their  deeds  be  the 
contrary,  and  certainly  they  did  spend  their  money,  where 
they  think  the}'  have  the  least  risk  of  loss.  The  business 
of  this  store  increased  so  much,  that  it  had  to  be  en- 
larged. As  the  owner  Uved  ten,  fifty  and  one  hundred 
miles  from  his  other  non-liquor  stores,  it  was  quite  im- 
possible that  he  could  give  personal  attention  to  all  of 
them. 

The  Gaston  Rock  Store,  had  the  control  of  more  than 
fifty  boatmen,  whom  be  could  have  forced  to  buy  whis- 
key of  him,  and  I  have  often  heard  him  say,  he  could 
have  sold  enough  in  twenty  years  of  his  business,  to 
have  made  a  small  canal. 

The  toll-collector,  who  had  a  store,  and  sold  whiskey, 
got  into  trouble.  This  business  was  given  to  him,  a 
business  worth  over  one  thousand  dollars  per  year,  re- 
quiring little  time  or  work. 

After  a  while,  the  Presidency  of  the  Roanoke  Naviga- 
tion Company  was  given  to  him,  without  his  having  the 
most  distant  thought  of  even  succeeding  men  of  such 
wealth  and  high  character,  as  had  filled  the  office.  It 
had  been  recorded  on  tlieir  books,  some  years  before  this, 
that  he  refused,  point  blank,  to  be  the  agent  for  the  com- 
pany; to  run  fifteen  to  twenty  boats,  when  the  Danville 


60 

railroad  was  commenced,  and  that  at  a  salary  of  fifteen 
bundred  dollars,  with  a  clerk  to  do  most  of  the  business. 
It  would  have  contributed  largely  to  the  benefit  of  his 
store  if  the  boats  ran  on  Sunday,  as  had  been  their  habit 
since  the.  navigation  commenced,  or  had  to  take  whiskey 
even  as  freight. 

It  was  agreed,  and  by  full  authority  entered  on  their 
books,  that  he  should  draw  on  their  treasurer,  at  his  dis- 
cretion and  judgment,  to  buy  the  boats  and  as  many 
negroes  as  he  thought  proper  to  manage  them. 

It  may  also  be  recorded  that  these  boats  were  bought 
and  rigged  ;  that,  for  the  three  years  they  were  navi- 
gated, no  whiskey  was  ever  carried  as  freight  on  them  ; 
that  they  were  the  only  boats  that  ever  navigated  this 
river  that  invariably  laid  over  on  Sunday ;  that  not  a 
loss,  robbery,  or  accident  ever  occurred  on  any  of  them, 
until  the  Danville  railroad  was  completed  and  the  busi- 
siness  satisfactorily  closed  and  abandoned ;  that  during- 
this  time,  seventeen  boats  belonging  to  other  persons 
had  their  cargoes  more  or  less  lost  or  damaged,  and 
several  of  the  crews  drowned ;  that  fifteen  of  these 
seventeen  happened  on  Sundays ;  and  that,  during  the 
prevalence  of  the  cholera  on  the  river,  not  one  on  the 
Company's  boats  died. 

If  these  and  a  thousand  other  facts  that  he  has  tested 
and  proved  do  not  convince  some  of  the  cavilers  on  this 
subject,  even  one  from  the  dead  would  not  succeed  in 
convincing  them,  after  I  tell  you  the  fate  of  the  man 
who  kept  the  store  in  Summit,  North  Carolina. 


CALAIS-MORALE."  61 


The  Summit  Store. 


^  BOUT  fifty  years  since,  a  soberly  raised  young  man 
C^  moved  into  ray  county  and  married  a  woman  with 
some  property,  and  commenced  store-keeping  with  his 
brother-in-law,  a  preacher.  The  new  railroad  made 
Summit  Depot  a  good  place  for  a  store.  This  man 
bought  land,  built  a  dwelling  for  his  family  and  a  store 
near  the  depot. 

Shortly  after  this,  he  dissolved  partnership  with  his 
brother-in-law,  and  set  up  a  store  on  his  own  account. 
He  sold  whiskey,  too,  to  be  drank  at  the  store,  and 
seemed  to  flourish  for  a  while. 

My  business,  at  Gaston,  about  two  and  a-half  miles 
from  this  place,  caused  me  to  pass  near  it  and  to  hear  of 
it,  too. 

After  awhile,  chicken  fights  were  had  on  hohdays, 
and,  in  a  short  time,  one  murder  and  two  deaths 
occurred  there,  all  from  whiskey. 

Soon  after  all  this  happened,  the  owner  of  the  store 
came  to  me  and  said  he  would  fail,  unless  he  could  get 
a  certain  sum  in  cash  for  his  place,  and  that,  if  I  would 
buy  it,  it  would  save  me  a  ride  of  fifteen  miles  per  day 
and  place  me  nearer  my  business ;  besides,  it  would 
enable  him  to  pay  his  debts. 


62  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

He  had  several  children;  and,  considering  the'  above 
facts  of  the  case,  and  that  my  buying  the  place  would 
close  this  house  of  death,  I  paid  him  the  sum  asked  for 
the  property,  but  it  did  not  pay  up  all  his  debts. 

His  ten  children,  mostly  daughters,  have  this  curse 
entailed  on  them  and  their  children  to  this  day. 

His  clerk  and  kinsman  had  a  few  hundred  dollars, 
mostly  an  inheritance,  so  he  built  him  a  store  on  the 
other  side  of  the  railroad,  as  I  had  turned  the  other 
into  a  school-house,  and  would  sell  no  land,  at  any 
price,  for  a  whiskey  store  to  be  built  on  it. 

This  clerk  was  quite  popular,  and  did  a  good  business 
for  a  time,  but  he  had  acqired  the  habit  of  drinking 
at  the  store,  and  would  occasionally  get  on  a  frolic,  until 
the  habit  produced  mania-poiua.  He  made  many  ef- 
forts to  leave  off  drinking  w^Liskey,  but  the  thing  was 
always  before  him.  He  yielded,  and  in  a  few  years 
died  of  an  attack  of  delerium  tremens. 

He  had  merely  wasted  his  estate,  but,  fortunately,  had 
never  married. 

Another  and  another  tried  the  store,  and  w^hiskey 
would  flourish  for  awhile ;  but,  at  last,  all  of  them  and 
their  owners  came  to  grief. 

In  South  Gaston  there  were  shops  of  the  same  ilk, 
all  of  which  failed ;  and,  at  this  time,  the  keepers  and 
their  houses  are  in  places  where  they  shall  be  "  known 
no  more." 

I  could  mention  enough  of  such  instances  to  make  a 
book. 

The  strange  conduct  of  the  law-makers,  who  are  sup- 
posed to  be,  or  ought  to  be,  the  selectmen  of  the  coun- 


63 

try,  has  been  a  sore  puzzle  to  nie,  from  my  boyliood  to 
this  day. 

It  seems  singular,  indeed,  that  ihe)/  should  make  laws 
to  punish  every  crime — even  peccadillos — and  in  the 
Sffrne  book  make  and  keep  laws  which  diredly  cause  and 
multiply  the  very  crimes  that  are  to  be  punished  by  the 

first  laws. 

They  tax  and  issue  licenses  to  make  and  sell  an 
article  wliich  causes  crime ;  and  I  am  sorry  to  add  that 
the  officers  that  issue  these  licenses  are  not  over 
particular  in  selecting  the  most  fit  persons  to  use  them. 

AVhat  is  more  incongruous  to  me  is,  that  the  taxes  for 
this  thing  produce  only  a  moiety  of  the  cost  of  prose- 
cutions, jails,  and  poor-houses,  made  necessary  by  it,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  sorrow,  loss  and  cost  to  the  persons 
and  families  who  may  have  escaped  legal  punishment 
of  their  crimes. 

People  are  often  heard  to  speak  of  and  laud  the 
progress  of  civilization  and  the  unprecedented  develop- 
ment of  the  arts  and  sciences,  w^hile  little  is  done  to 
suppress  drunkenness,  though  legislatures  have,  for 
many  years  past,  had  the  example,  at  least,  in  one  State, 
of  the  salutary  effect  of  laws  against  the  selling  and 
making  of  this  poison  invented  or  discovered  by  the 
Devil. 

The  manner  of  this  discovery  I  will  attempt  to  show^ 
you.  His  Satanic  Majesty  is  never  "  idle  in  his  leisure," 
but  diligent  in  his  business. 

Sitting  in  his  laboratory,  cogitating  upon  his  plagues 
for  mankind,  and  having  his  crucibles  at  hand,  he 
wished  to  try  an  experiment  w^ith  a  grain  of  corn,  and 


64  "CALAIS-MORALE." 

after  various  experiments,  he  at  last  produced  a  liquid 
drop.  He  touched  it  with  his  finger,  tasted  it,  and 
snapped  his  fingers,  saying :  "This  is  the  thing;  now  I 
will  glut  my  revenge  and  gloat  my  eyes  with  the  evils 
that  it  will  inflict  on  mankind." 

I  dreamed  last  night  that  I  saw  a  boy  catch  a  fish 
from  the  bottom  of  a  clear,  deep  stream.  The  boy 
asked  me  to  take  the  fish  from  his  hook.  I  did  so,  and 
inquired  the  depth  of  the  water  by  the  length  of  his 
fishing-line.  Another  boy  near  by  was  pulUng  up  a  line, 
and  answered :  "  Mine  is  a  fathom  line,  and  it  is  ninety 
feet  deep." 

I  may  go  too  deep  into  this  subject  and  entangle  my 
lines,  but  I  cannot  help  regretting  that  a  recent  action 
in  my  adopted  State  of  jSTorth  Carolina  showed  an  over- 
w^ielming  majority  against  the  law  against  whiskey ; 
but  I  am  pleased  to  say  that  the  laws  prohibiting  it  in 
the  county  of  iNorthampton,  in  which  the  scenes  of 
many  tragedies  were  enacted  many  years  ago,  remain 
steadfast  to  this  day,  and  I  am  grieved  that  over  the 
balance  of  the  State  the  Devil  still  holds  his  sway. 

On  my  first  visit  to  the  court-house  of  Northam^pton, 
I  saw  a  w^hite  man  at  the  whipj3ing-post,  and  after 
drinking  a  glassful  of  raw  whiskey,  handed  to  him  by 
his  little  daughter,  he  received  his  penalty  of  stripes 
on  his  bare  back  for  stealing  a  plough-share. 

Soon  after  this,  I  saw  a  drunken  man  fall  from  the 
high  steps  that  led  to  the  bar-room,  and  appeared  to 
remain  still  on  the  ground.  I  went  to  the  landlord  and 
told  him  that  there  was  a  man  lying  at  his  door  who 
was,  in  my  opinion,  seriously  hurt. 

"  Oh,"  said  he,  "  he  is  only  drunk  !  " 


C5 

In  an  hour  T  passed  a_<:^ain,  and  sceinp^  tlie  man  did 
not  breathe,  I  went  to  him  again  and  told  him  the  man 
was  dead.  On  examining  liim,  it  was  found  that  he 
had  broken  his  neck  l)y  the  i'aU. 

AVe  see  that  the  Devil,  by  his  discovery,  gets  many 
subjects. 

The  next  scene  in  regard  to  whiskey  was  in  connec- 
tion with  a  little  fellow  playing  at  quoits.  For  a  most 
trivial  offense,  he  thrust  his  knife  into  his  companion, 
and  then  ran  to  the  swamp  to  escape  the  watchful 
guardians  of  the  law. 

One  night,  at  this  court-house,  I  went  to  my  bed- 
room, up  stairs,  on  a  passage,  where  there  were  a 
number  of  small  tables  with  lighted  tallow  caudles  on 
them.  From  my  unlocked  door,  I  could  hear  the  oaths  of 
the  card-players  to  such  a  degree  that  I  could  not  sleep; 
and  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  w^hen  sleep  had  over- 
powered me  and  I  had  fallen  into  slumber,  I  was 
aw^akened  by  a  drunkard  who  had  come  to  bed  with  me. 
I  ousted  him,  barred  my  door,  and  reflected  upon  these 
evils  until  morning.  I  got  up  at  daylight,  and  passed 
by  the  dirty  tables,  that  were  soiled  with  tobacco,  cards 
And  drinking-cups,  to  say  to  the  landlord  that  this  array, 
on  mj'  first  visit  to  the  court,  and  experience  of  the  laws 
of  my  new  State,  had  disgusted  me,  and  would  make 
my  visits  there  few  and  far  between.  jS'ow,  that  they 
have  eschewed  whiskev,  none  of  these  thinsfs  can  or 
will  happen  again. 

Several  years  after  these  occurrences,  I  was  induced 
by  my  family  to  go  to  Garysburg,  the  half-way  station 
to  this  court-house,  '^Jackson,"  to  attend  an  exhibition 
of  a  preparatory  school.     I  was  attracted  by  the  speech 

5 


6Q  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

as  well  as  the  face  of  the  boy-orator,  and  inquired  his 
name  and  college.  His  college  proved  to  be  ray  store^ 
at  Gaston,  K  C.  He  became  a  most  faithful  and 
excellent  clerk,  and  had  a  store  of  his  own  for  more 
than  twenty  years  in  Petersburg. 

As  his  line  of  business  did  not  require  any  whiskey 
in  his  store,  that  fact,  or  his  good  conduct,  may  be  the 
cause  that  his  business  and  store  survived  the  wreck 
made  by  the  war. 

We  will  now  return  to  the  speech  that  followed  his- 
at  the  school-house.     The  subject  was  temperance. 

Rather  to  my  astonishment,  when  this  speech  was 
concluded,  the  orators  of  the  day  and  a  considerable 
number  of  the  audience  formed  into  line,  with  a  hand- 
some temperance  banner  floating  at  the  head  of  the 
moving  line.  In  it  were  several  of  the  most  influential 
men  of  this  county,  whose  previous  example  and  influ- 
ence had  encouraged  that  which  this  act  condemned. 
My  astonishment  was  increased,  as  I  had  not  heard,  in 
a  distant  county,  the  dulcet  sounds  of  war  against  the 
monster,  whiskey,  and  having  been,  for  so  many  years, 
engaged  in  this  unequal  xjontest  alone,  the  note  indi- 
cating help,  though  ever^so  remote,  was  pleasing  to  my 
ear. 

We  left  for  home  ;  and,  whilst  our  horse  drank  at  a 
clear  brook  that  crossed  our  road,  the  president  of  this 
new  temperance  society  overtook  us  on  the  way,  and 
asked  me  to  join.  He  said  that  even  the  boys  were 
joining  it. 

I  answered  that  I  was  the  "  old  gentleman  himself" 
m  this  business,  and|liad,  for  many  years,  kept  a  society 
of  my  own,  and  if  all  would  adopt   the  simple  rules  of 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  67 

niv  societ}',  it  would  disband  liis  and  all  its  like.  My 
rule  was,  to  neither  make,  keep,  sell,  buy,  or  give  whis- 
key to  any  person  whatever. 

lie  passed  on.  His  new  temperance  society  got 
astray,  and  one  of  its  leading  members  was  shot  in 
an  ailVay  near  the  very  spot  where  the  tirst  temperance 
banner  was  nnfi>rled. 

Whiskey  was  the  match  tliat  tired  the  gun  that  killed 
this  man. 

I  have  often  heard  it  said  that  it  was  time  and  labor 
thrown  away  trying  to  cure  old  drunkards ;  that  the 
true  policy  was  to  prevent  the  young  from  becoming 
drunkards. 

The  State  of  Maine  joined  my  society,  and  was  the 
first  member  I  had,  and  I  have  heard  of  no  relapse  of 
any  faithful  member.  I  am  glad  to  say  that  I  have 
had  many  other  faithful  members  voluntarily  added  to 
it ;  but  our  company  makes  neither  parades,  shows,  nor 
speeches ;  expends  neither  time,  nor  money,  nor  ever 
meets  the  fate  of  many  of  Father  Mathew's  converts. 

In  1867, 1  spent  several  months  in  Paris,  where  wine.^ 
are  more  drunk  than  water  (this  w^ater  did  not  agree 
with  me,  and,  "  in  Eome,  do  as  the  Komans  do.")  I 
drank  ''  Via  Ordinaire"  with  ray  bread,  and  once  took 
'^ Eau  de  Vie"  in  my  coffee,  and,  although  I  searched 
diligently  to  find  a  drunkard,  I  found  myself  the  most 
intoxicated  person  that  I  saw^  in  Paris.  In  Liverpool, 
England,  it  was  too  common  to  see  women  drunk,  curs- 
ing and  fighting  in  the  streets. 

The  French,  liow^ever,  are  a  long-lived  people,  and 
their  half-temperate  habits  may  prolong  their  lives. 


68 

III  Japan,  they  make  frequent  use  of  their  "  Hari- 
Xari,"  and  by  this  act  make  their  deaths,  by  accidents, 
equal  those  of  other  nations  who  drink  whiskey. 

The  custom  of  such  a  sober,  cheerful  people  might, 
with  propriety,  be  imitated  by  other  nations.  As  the 
Maine  law  is  so  little  imitated,  might  not  good  be 
accomplished  by  an  extensive  planting  of  vineyards, 
which  flourish  so  well  in  all  parts  of  our  countrj-  (even 
in  the  "Dismal  Swamp"  of  Virginia),  and  the  produc- 
tion of  good  pure  wines  ? 

I  w^ill  close  this  sad  subject  with  a  short  story  of 
Ludivico  Cornarus,  of  Padua,  Italj',  who  had  become 
a  victim  to  intemperance  at  thirty-live  years  of  age. 
He  took  his  bed  to  die,  refused  the  doctors'  prescriptions, 
and  at  last  cured  himself  by  a  firm  resolution,  and  was 
a  healthy  man  at  the  age  of  eighty-three.  He  adopted 
and  kept  a  sober  and  temperate  habit,  proving  this  good 
effect  on  himself  for  forty-five  years. 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  69 


Concentration, 


^T%  HE  weakest  living  creature,  by  concentrating  its 
%^ffS^  po^Yers  on  a  single  object,  can  accomplish  some- 
thing; the  strongest,  by  dispensing  its  over  many,  may 
fail  to  accomplish  anything.  The  drop,  by  continued 
falling,  bores  its  passage  tli rough  the  hardest  rock  ;  the 
hasty  torrent  rushes  over  it  with  hideous  uproar,  and 
leaves  no  trace  behind;  and,  though  "bores"  are 
avoided,  yet,  they  are  the  most  irreproachable  of  human 
beings  and  the  best  fellows  in  the  world ;  and,  if  I 
wanted  a  guardian  for  defenseless  orphans,  I  should 
inquire  for  the  greatest  bore  in  the  vicinity,  for  I  should 
know  that  he  would  be  a  man  of  unblemished  honor 
and  integrity. 

The  most  remarkable  anomoly  I  have  met  in  inconsis- 
tent men  is,  that  so  many  ot"  them  will  seize  the  narrow- 
end  of  a  bargain  with  their  fellow-man,  chuckle  over  the 
ill-gotten  gain,  as  they  pack  it  away  with  other  gains 
of  the  same  ilk,  to  be  left  for  their  children  to  squander 
in  drunkenness  or  riotousness.  Tliough  they  may  be 
sober  men  themselves,  and  wish  the  chances  to  ensnare 
their  children  were  expelled  or  lessened,  yet,  when  a 
vote  is  taken  on  this  vital  question,  they  are  callous  or 
indifferent,  and,  if  they  vote  at  all,  vote  with  a  major- 
ity, and  prematurely  make  a  post-mortem  disposition  of 
their  estates. 


70  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

I  know  a  man  to-day  is  not  the  same  as  the  man 
to-morrow,  He  may  he  bold,  adventurous,  generous, 
full  of  zeal,  one  hoar ;  yet  timid,  cautious,  and  indiffer- 
ent the  next.  Hence,  the  ancient  Germans,  who  seemed 
to  be  acquainted  with  this  philosophy,  are  said  always  to 
have  held  two  deliberations  upon  great  affairs,  especially 
war — one  when  drunk,  the  other  when  sober. 

Before  the  voters  in  Xorth  Carolina  try  the  whiskey 
question  again,  let  them  deliberate  as  the  Germans  did. 

They  said,  too,  if  you  preferred  success,  concentrate, 
deliberate,  and  use  your  pluck. 

If  you  wish  to  fail,  dilate,  hesitate,  take  the  chances, 
and  trust  to  luck. 

They  said  that  ease  of  body  and  contentment  of 
mind  constituted  happiness.     I  agree  in  this  opinion. 

"  When  vice  prevails  and  impious  men  have  sway, 
the  post  of  honor  is  a  private  station." 

Atticus  said :  "  Thank  heaven,  I  have  at  length 
reached  that  desideratum  in  the  pursuit  of  happiness — 
The  being  able  to  '  concentrate '  not  only  all  my  feel- 
ings but  all  my  ideas,  and  certainc^ly  all  my  wishes, 
within  the  pale  of  this  domain." 

Such  self-command  had  Carlin,  that,  while  he 
delighted  the  Parisians  with  his  wit,  was  thought 
diverted  by  it  himself,  he  was  consulting  his  phyiscian 
upon  the  hypochandria  that  killed  him. 

It  was  Haztell's  opinion  that  all  that  is  worth  remem- 
bering in  life  is  the  poetry  of  it. 


CALAIS-MORALE."  71 


The    Gaston  Story, 


YAAj,  boys,  now  for  the  ''  Gaston  Story."  Forty- 
Wi£v5)  five  years  ago,  when  the  Greensville  and  Roa- 
noke railroad  (now  extinct)  was  completed  to  Gaston, 
N.  C,  the  grand  depot  for  the  Roanoke  Navigation 
Oompany  was  built  on  the  bank  of  the  river.  At  the 
depot  of  this  embryo  town,  more  tobacco  and  merchan- 
dise was  received  and  delivered  than  at  any  other  place 
in  the  Southern  States. 

Mr.  R.  H.,  of  Petersburg,  Ya.,  made  money  from 
contracts  for  wagoning  on  this  road,  built  the  first  house 
in  this  little-to-be-town,  in  which  house  his  wife,  three 
daughters  and  one  son  resided.  The  wife  was  religious, 
the  daughters  comely,  the  son  promising,  and  all 
respectable. 

Mr.  H.  was  rather  coarse,  having  wagoned  for  many 
years,  abrupt,  swore  like  a  trooper,  but  correct  to  a  fault 
in  his  business  transactions. 

Although  an  entire  novice,  he  built  a  store-room 
under  his  dwelling,  at  one  end,  and  a  bar-room  under  the 
other.  His  wife  and  daughters  were  opposed  to  this  bar- 
room ;  but  "  Uncle  Dick,"  as  he  was  mostly  called,  was 
rough  as  a  bear,  strong  as  a  mule,  and  fully  as  obstinate, 
when  he  set  his  head  and  heart  against  things  outside  of 
his  wife's  jurisdiction. 


72  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

The  stream  of  travel  bj  this  new  railroad,  the  country 
wagons  and  carts,  and  the  three  hundred  batteau-mcD 
that  navigated  the  Roanoke,  all  concentrating  at  this, 
point,  gave  merchandise,  of  every  kind  kept  in  the 
country  store,  wings  ;  the  store-keeper  his  choice  of  the 
feathers.  Indeed,  it  required  neither  tact  nor  skill 
to  make  money,  as  he  had  a  monopoly  in  this  sickly 
little  town  of  one  house,  and  a  hotel,  then  building,  and 
the  three-hundred-foot  depot  covered  with  slate.  His 
wife  kept  a  well-patronized  boarding-house  for  the  many 
bridge  and  railroad-men.  The  writer's  w^orkmen,  when 
he  built  the  storehouse,  boarded  with  her. 

Uncle  Dick  and  his  son,  with  all  usual  help  of  the 
wife  and  hired  bar-keeper,  kept  this  money-coining 
business  all  going,  and  no  man  ever  made  money, 
for  a  short  time,  so  easy  and  so  fast  as  Uncle  Dick.  But,, 
in  a  year  or  two,  the  large  hotel  was  completed,  and 
three  other  stores,  with  trained  store-keepers,  were  in 
operation,  which  opposition  rather  curtailed  Uncle 
Dick's  monopoly  of  merchandise,  but  his  bar-room  made 
up  the  appearances  of  numbers  visiting  his  store,  and 
flourished  as  the  "  green-bay  tree,"  with  drunkards  and 
card-players,  stragglers,  loafers  and  swearers,  yet  the 
latter  class  rarely  got  the  better  of  Uncle  Dick,  and,  as 
he  was  proprietor,  always  gave  in  to  him. 

He  added  a  German  tailor,  named  Andrew  Ockler,  to 
his  establishment,  right  over  the  bar-room.  The  tailor 
had  plenty  of  work;  he  was  a  steady,  silent,  deep-eyed, 
sombre-looking  man,  and  in  my  short  acquaintance 
with  him,  I  learned  that  he  was  not  satisfied  with  his 
situation.  He  told  me  that  he  got  plenty  of  work,  made 
more  money  than  he  anticipated,  but  he  had  travelled 
and  worked  in  many  places,  but  the  bar-room  below  was 


73* 

far  the  most  wicked  and  noisy  that  he  had  ever  seen  in- 
any  country,  and  that  God's  curse  must  visit  the  phice, 
as  he  had  never  yet  seen  it  fail  to  do,  and  he  was  an  okl 
man,  that  he  woukl  soon  leave  the  phice;  and  then, 
almost  in  a  prophetic  voice,  his  deep-set  eyes  giving 
weight  to  his  words,  he  said :  "  I  see  you  will  not  sell, 
whiskey  in  your  store,  and,  though  I  shall  not  see  yon 
again  in  this  world,  and  I  am  so  sorry  for  the  nice- 
family  and  religious  wife  of  Mr.  II.,  who  appears  now- 
rich  and  prosperous;  yet,  Mr.  W.,  mark  what  I  am 
about  to  say  to  you :  this  house,  with  all  its  wealth  and 
prosperity,  in  a  very  few  years,  will  be  brought,  by  an 
unseen  hand,  to  poverty,  woe  and  dispersion  ;  and  you 
will  see  the  curse  of  God  follow  the  head  of  this  house 
to  his  grave  of  a  pauper,  and  the  very  phice  on  which 
this  wickedness  now^  so  flourishes  will  become  a  corn- 
field, as  it  was  a  few  years  since,  and  your  stone  sheet- 
iron  temperance  store  will  be  about  the  only  house  that 
will  be  left  with  the  appearance  of  business  in  this 
seemingly  now  flourishing  little  town." 

I  never  saw  this  prophet-tailor  again.  The  new  hotel 
had  a  iVcU-ordered  bar-room,  and  took  all  of  the  best  cus- 
tomers from  Uncle  Dick,  and  left  him  the  scum.  The- 
other  two  stores  also  sold  liquor,  which  shaved  his- 
profits  largely  in  the  jug-whiskey  trade. 

The  ''  Moris  Malllr anils  "  fever  raged.  Uncle  Dick 
concluded  to  follow  the  lead  of  a  rich  man,  Mr.  W.,. 
in  growing  the  trees  and  raising  silk  worms,  so  he  built 
silk-houses  and  prepared  largely,  at  heavy  expense,  for 
a  business,  of  which  he  had  no  knowlege  or  experience,, 
to  make  up,  at  one  grand  gain,  the  w^iole  amount  of 
profits  he  supposed  lost  when  his  monopoly  ceased. 


74 

Of  course,  this  new,  untried  project  failed ;  the  silk 
worms  even  died  of  the  *'  yellows." 

The  son,  who  had  control  of  the  store  and  har-room 
whilst  his  father's  attention  was  devoted  to  the  mulberry 
leaves  and  silk  worms,  played  cards  and  drank  whiskey 
to  his  heart's  content,  and  was  the  very  material,  in 
money  and  rashness,  for  older  gamblers  to  fleece  without 
dulling  their  shears,  and  the  store  and  bar-room  mostly 
went  to  these  gamblers  as  readily  as  Uncle  Dick's  larger 
amounts  went  to  feed  silk  worms. 

ISTo  reasonable  business  could  bear  such  a  strain,  and 
though  Uncle  Dick  cursed  and  swore  at  his  son  and  the 
silk  business,  and  never  having  time  to  take  an  inven- 
tory of  goods  or  to  balance  accounts,  his  credit  good, 
too,  in  Petersburg,  ni  less  than  two  years,  his  wife,  an 
honest  and  calculating  woman,  discovered  that  her  bus- 
band  was  seriously  embarrassed  and  went  with  him  to 
town  to  settle  up  what  she  found  a  ruined  business,  not 
able  to  pay  its  debts  by  sale  of  all  the  property.  She 
took  her  daughters,  all  now  nearly  grown,  and  went  to 
her  friends. 

Uncle  Dick  went  to  a  cabin,  built  about  two  miles 
from  Gaston  for  silk  worms,  and  with  which  there  were 
a  few  acres  of  land,  under  mortgage,  and  "  Moris  MidU- 
caniis''^  worthless,  and  adjoining  the  farm  of  my  chief 
clerk. 

The  son  became  a  boatman,  a  gambler  and  drunkard, 
and,  as  I  never  heard  or  saw  more  of  him,  after  a  few 
years,  no  doubt  was  laid  in  a  premature  grave,  which  is 
ever  ready  for  all  of  that  class  I  have  ever  known. 

Uncle  Dick's  pecuniary  misfortunes  (although  hereto- 
fore sober)  made  him  a  drunkard,  and,  as  misfortunes 


**  CALAIS-MORALE."  75 

seldom  come    alone,   the   white  swellings    attacked  his 
•riglit  leg. 

My  clerk,  who  was  a  religious  man,  frequently  told 
me  of  Uncle  Dick's  horrible  condition,  and  said  that  he 
was  the  gamest  man  he  ever  saw ;  that  his  leg  must  be 
amputated  or  he  must  die  ;  that  he  had  sufiered  worse 
than  death  for  two  years ;  that  he  had  a  swing-bed 
hung  to  the  rafters  of  his  cabin,  being  unable  to  walk  ; 
that  he  and  the  neighbors  gave  him  victuals,  and  a 
little  free-negro  to  wait  on  him ;  that  Uncle  Dick 
generally  had  a  jug  of  whiskey  so  he  could  reach  it, 
and  lay  almost  helpless,  as  the  little  negro  frequently 
ran  away,  but  Uncle  Dick  never  ceased  cursing  nor 
■drinking  whiskey,  when  he  could  get  it. 

Several  doctors,  hearing  of  his  situation,  went  to  see 
liim,  and  found  it  necessary  to  amputate  the  leg  from 
the  body,  in  order  to  save  his  life. 

Uncle  Dick  now  had  to  crutch  it.  He  quit  swearing 
iind  drinking,  and,  having  no  money  or  kin,  some  kind 
persons  made  up  a  purse  for  him  to  go  back  to  Gaston, 
^nd  set  up  a  candy  and  oyster-shop  to  help  support  him- 
self, but  it  was  expressly  stipulated  by  the  donors  that 
he  was  not  to  sell  whiskey. 

He  made  a  living  for  a  few  years,  but,  wishing  to 
make  more  money  re-commenced  the  sale  of  liquor, 
was  informed  on  by  a  mean  fellow,  out  of  spite,  was 
hauled  twenty-five  miles  in  a  mule-cart  to  Jackson,  the 
<30urt-house,  for  trial,  and  indicted. 

The  writer  met  him  wdien  he  arrived  at  the  court- 
house, spoke  to  him,  and  heard  him  curse  the  man  who 
informed  ou  him,  and  sav  that  he  felt  like  a  man  brouo:ht 
to  be  hanged,  and  he  had   rather   to   have  died  than  be 


76 

forced  to  come  as  be  now  appeared,  and  that  it  would 
cost  him  all  of  the  little  money  he  had  saved  in  the 
two  past  years,  and  made  his  future  prospects  terrible. 

The  writer  approached  the  District- Attorney  and  some 
of  the  grand  jurors  and  stated  Uncle  Dick's  case. 
He  had  an  old  acquaintance  and  one  well-wisher  on  the 
jury,  a  man  who  knew  his  honesty  and  one  who  bad 
influence.  Anyhow,  and  so  unexpectedly  to  Uncle 
Dick,  he  left  for  home  in  the  mule-cart  that  afternoon 
with  a  smile  on  bis  face,  and  only  one  cent  fine  to  pay. 

This  man,  in  less  than  three  years,  died  drunk  and 
alone,  in  his  little  shop  at  Gaston,  w^ith  only  a  portion  of 
his  manly  body  resting  on  his  bumble  bed.  He  was 
buried  by  tbose  who  bad  gratuitously  furnished  him 
funds  at  first  to  buy  bis  candy  and  oysters  for  his  shop 
in  Gaston. 

Xeither  his  wife  or  children  ever  came  to  see  him 
after  the  first  breaking  up  of  bis  bouse,  and  the  good 
merchants  of  Petersburg  never  recovered  their  debts 
against  him,  and  the  place,  wdiere  his  flourishing  house 
once  stood,  is  now  the  corn-field  that  the  German  tailor 
said  it  would  be. 

The  navigation  of  the  Roanoke  has  been  superceded 
by  railroads,  and  the  bridge  across  the  river  buried  dur- 
ing the  war.  The  Greensville  and  Roanoke  railroad,, 
long  since  suspended,  tore  up  and  carried  ofi:*  the  hotel 
and  large  depot,  which  made  the  place  look  like  the 
deserted  castles  of  the  Rhine,  and  the  only  show  of 
business  or  life  in  this  once  flourishing  town  for  several 
years  past  is  a  small  store  kept  in  my  stone  and  iron 
building,  which  I  sold,  many  years  since,  at  what  was 
then    considered  a  small  price,  but   more  than  it  after 


"CALAIS-MORALK.  M 

proveil  wortli.     It  is  now  the  lone-stoiie  to   mark  where 
the  town  of  Gaston  was  in  times  of  yore. 

The  ways^rrovidence  are  strani^e  and  past  finding -f 
ont.  That  Unele  Dick's  grave  should  be  without  a  tomb 
is  natural ;  that  many  of  the  few  inhabitants  of  this 
sickly  depot-town  should  have  died,  and  one  to  commit 
suicide  by  placin*;-  himself  directly  for  the  wheels  of  an 
engine  to  pass  over  his  body  (he  was  a  tailor  from  AVil- 
liamsburg,  Va.,  drunk  and  half  crazy)  may  have  been 
natural;  and  that  not  one  of  the  merchants  tljat  sold 
whiskey  and  kept  store  in  tliis  place  ever  cleared  any 
money.  Two  of  tliem,  I  know,  ended  bankrupts.  The 
large  brick  hotel  was  a  heav}-  loss  to  its  rich  owner. 
The  writer,  who  never  sold  any  wliiskey  in  his  store, 
made  and  cleared  several  tens  of  thousands  of  dollars, 
and  the  last  year  he  was  manager  of  the  dying  and 
dead  Roanoke  Navigation  Company. 

In  his  wn-itten  report  to  the  president  and  directors  of 
the  company,  and  which  is  now  on  file,  he  refused  to 
receive  any  of  the  sum  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars,  his 
salary  for  the  management  of  the  boats,  etc.,  of  said 
company  for  the  two  years  past. 

AVhilst  the  company  had  granted  to  him  the  purse 
and  the  sword  to  fight  the  Danville  railroad,  he,  instead 
of  using  the  money  at  his  discretion,  then  in  the  hands 
of  Col.  Andrew  Joj'ner,  the  treasurer,  to  buy  more 
boats  and  negroes  to  continue  in  such  an  unequal  con- 
test, and  which  must  termmate  in  entire  loss  to  the 
company,  prudently  retired  by  making  no  purchases, 
and  letting  the  boats  then  on  hand  wear  out  and  die 
a  natural  death,  saving  the  company  many  thousands 
of  dollars. 


78 

The  new  president  of  the  company,  Mr.  B.,  when  his 
report  was  read  before  the  board  of  directors,  said  he 
thought  I  had  committed  a  big  sil]}'  in  refusing  m.j 
salary. 

Surely,  if  my  twenty  years'  of  business  at  Gaston  had 
not  been  a  success  (I  now  had  a -large  family),  I  should 
have  been  a  stickler,  indeed,  in  refusing  my  last  year's 
salary,  because  I  had  really  been  at  so  little  trouble  in 
closing,  instead  of  enlarging,  a  company's  business  at 
my  discretion.  I  never  wanted  mone}'  that  was  not 
earned  by  the  sweat  of  my  brow. 

I  am  sure  that,  even  at  this  day,  no  consideration 
could  induce  me  to  take  money  at  a  less  cost,  and  why 
should  I  not  afford  a  tomb-stone  for  this  now^  extinct 
town  when  the  stones  would  not  be  worth  carting- 
away  from  the  place,  and  this  house  is  not  yet  without 
its  second  owmer  and.  its  merchandise,  and,  although 
more  than  two-score  years  have  passed  since  its  build- 
ing, it  has  never  been  idle  or  tenantless.  The  balance 
of  the  town  was  a  desert. 

"Well,  boys,  I  have  told  you  a  long  story,  and  the  sure 
and  certain  results  have  followed  in  this  case,  as  in  all 
others  I  have  noted  in  a  long  life.  I  could  tell  you 
many  more,  equally  as  plain  and  sad,  but  I  will  stop  at 
this  one,  which,  if  it  has  and  does  not  convert  and  con- 
vince your  minds,  you  will,  perhaps,  say  this  is  but  one 
of  the  same  old  stories,  and  that  you  would  much  prefer 
to  hear  other  stories  which  smack  less  of  whiskey,  death 
and  ruin. 

Boys,  in  concluding  this  subject,  I  must  speak  once 
more  of  the  Eoanoke  Navigation  Company.  Although 
many   of    the   boatmen    were   terrible   fellows,   drank 


79 

^Ybiskoy,  got  drunk  and  got  drowned  on  Sundays,  yet 
there  were  many  very  reliable  boatmen,  with  black 
faces  and  curley  hair,  wlio  held  their  characters 
for  faithfulness  for  more  than  fort}'  years  in  this  tempt- 
ing occupation. 

Such  men  as  John  Randolph,  Patrick  Henry,  tbe 
liruces,  Pannel,  Broadanx,  McGee,  Joyner,  Bailey 
and  Baskerville  were  of  this  company,  which  never 
borrowed  or  owed  money,  and  paid  salaries  to  the  treas- 
urer only — live  bundred  dollars  per  annum. 

The  presidents  of  this  company  never  would  take 
salaries,  and  the  writer,  elected  president  immediately 
after  the  war,  would  not  receive  bis  salary  at  any  rate, 
imitating  the  example  of  his  predecessors,  and  in  no 
way  stain  the  character  of  a  company,  wounded  and 
dying  from  the  kicks  of  the  steam-horses. 

This  company,  at  this  day,  owes  no  man,  and  its 
canal  and  real  estate,  from  Gaston  to  Weidon,  X.  C, 
is  to  be  sold  on  the  6th  day  of  February,  1882,  at  Ilali- 
fax  Courtbouse,  N.  C,  for  tbe  benefit  of  whom  it  may 
concern.  It  dies,  of  old  age,  an  honorable  deatb. 
ji^W — nay,  every  one,  of  the  old  officers  of  this  com- 
pany are  dead  except  the  writer,  whom  it  has  pleased 
God  to  spare,  and  to  write  its  requiem  for  this  book. 


:80  "  CALAIS-MORALE.' 


LUDIVICO    CORNARUS. 


^  ELL,  bo3's,  having  told  you  some  stories  overful 
"^  of  intemperance,  I  will  change  the  subject  mat- 
ter of  them,  and  tell  one  story  that  contains  both. 
This  story  cost  me  more  work  and  a  longer  search  to 
iind  it  than  all  of  the  stories  I  have  told  you  or  may 
tell  you.  Would  that  it  pay  you  a  part  of  this  cost 
to  me. 

Many  years  since,  I  had  a  wise  and  rich  friend,  who 
'did  me  the  honor  to  frequently  invite  me,  by  letters,  to 
travel  seventy-five  miles  to  visit  and  spend  several  days 
with  him,  and  again  to  go  South  and  spend  the  winters 
%vith  him,  his  health  somewhat  prompting  a  change  of 
<;limate.  His  perfect  cuisine,  and  more  inviting,  to  me, 
mental  food,  were  attractions  that  other  business  affairs 
liad  to  yield  to,  and,  as  I  never  had  time  to  visit  any 
person  at  home,  I  made  up  this  void  by  visiting  two 
more  men  abroad,  being  impressed  with  the  old  adage  : 
^' He  that  keeps  company  with  wise  men  may  become 
one  of  the  number." 

My  friend's  remarks,  at  table,  to  his  sons  and  their 
teacher,  were  frequently  grand  lessons  for  me,  and  one 
morning,  as  we  were  going  down  the  broad  granite 
steps  from  his  dwelling  for  our  customary  walk  on  his 
fine  estate  (he  was  fond  of  walking),  he  handed  me  a 
couplet  written  on  a  scrap  of  paper,  in  his  almost  illegi- 
ble hand,  signed  Herbert. 


81 

I  put  the  paper  in  mv  pocket-book,  asked  iioqaestions, 
-svbicli  has  been  my  habit,  unless  the  clonor  had  made 
•some  remark  on  presentiuic  it.     It  read  as  follows  : 

'*  The  worst  speak  sometliing  good,  if  all  want  sense. 
■Ood  takes  a  text  and  preacheth  patience." 

About  half  way  to  iny  home,  I  had  a  lad^-  friend,  at 
Tvhose  house  I  always  found  a  warm  reception,  an  inter- 
esting family  of  beautiful  and  accomplished  daughters, 
■one  of  whom,  an  invalid,  was  learned,  almost  as  her 
mother,  was  very  fond  of  backgammon.  To  amuse  her,  I 
frequently  gave  an  extra  day  to  my  visits,  and  as  1  often 
told  the  madam  tliat  her  •'  hotel  "  was  the  very  best  it 
had  ever  been  my  fortune  to  visit,  w^ith  plenty  of  money 
to  buy  that  which  I  ever  found  so  abundant  and  free  at 
her  house,  and  as  the  boon  of  good  company  at  the 
same  price,  my  horse  was  well  disposed  to  take  the  road 
that  lead  to  her  house,  and,  as  she  possessed  a  splendid 
estate  on  the  Roanoke  river,  with  a  noted  fiour-mill, 
"  St.  Leon,"  and  an  island  attaclied,  neither  master  or 
horse  could  expect  but  a  "feast,"  the  same  as  we  bad 
always  found,  and  as  business  was  alwaj's  mixed  with 
our  visits,  our  welcome  was  seasoned  with  that,  too. 

I  Lave  heard  her  commission  merchants,  an  old  and 
reliable  tirm  of  Petersburg,  Va.,  say  that  they  believed 
that  the  madam  was  one  of  the  best  business  ladies  in 
the  county,  v^he  was  the  best  I  ever  saw,  rp;.ite  as  quick 
and  sprightly  as  her  daughters,  laconic  in  her  letters 
of  business,  but  frequently  changed  them  to  me,  as  we 
were  quite  familiar  from  my  more  frequent  visits,  and 
occasional  cv)-partnersl]ip  in  lots  of  tlcur,  and  by  pur- 
chase of  wheat,  as  well  as  the  sales  of  her  own  crops  of 
flour. 

G 


82  ''  CALAIS-MORALE." 

The  only  conundrum  I  ever  made  was  to  match  one 
of  her  letters,  and  as  I  have  met  no  one  who  has  givea 
the  solution,  I  will  at  once  write  the  facts,  perhaps  to- 
catch  you.  Her  letter  of  business  contained  only  four 
lines,  with  a  postcript  of  a  dozen  lines,  adding,  "  'Why 
is  my  letter  like  the  comet  ?  "  (A  comet  was  then  visi- 
ble.) Give  it  up  ?  "Because  the  appendage  is  longer 
than  the  body." 

Answering  her  letter,  the  "  appendage  "  I  could  not 
pass  over  without  a  thump,  and  it  had  to  be  made  of  my 
letter,  the  pen,  ink  or  paper.  I  scratched  my  head,  and 
popped  down  the  following :  "  "Why  is  my  pen  like  a 
fisherman  ?  "  Give  it  up  ?  "Because  it  is  dropping  a 
line  for  a  catch. 

I  had  come  forty  miles  from  my  up-country  friends  to 
her  house,  and  had  forty  miles,  via  my  mother's,  and  to 
home.  An  early  breakfast,  my  horae  at  the  door  wait- 
ing my  leaving  the  breakfast  table,  I  thought  of  the 
couplet  or  catch  that  my  male  friend  had  given  me  on 
the  stone  steps,  and  asked  her  if  there  was  such  an 
author  as  Herbert. 

She  said,  Lucy,  go  to  your  private  library  (Lucy  was- 
the  invalid)  and  bring  the  book  for  Mr.  Wesson.  She 
returned  quickly  to  the  table.  I  opened  the  book,  and 
the  first  two  lines  my  eyes  lighted  on,  were  the  very 
same  ones  written  on  the  paper  I  then  held  in  my  hands. 
I  remarked  the  coincidence,  and  hastily  penciled  the 
title  page,  in  order  to  be  enabled  to  buy  the  book  when- 
ever I  should  find  one  in  some  book-store.  I  tried  the 
book-stores  from  New  Orleans  to  Baltimore,  when  I 
visited  these  cities,  and  in  a  contest  with  a  Xorfolk  book- 
seller, years  after,  in  regard  to  this  book,  he  obtained, 
for  an  order,  some  curtailed  anglicised,  spurious  copies, 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  83 

aiifl  I  had  to  wi-ite  to  the  iiiiulam,  to  set  us  right  on  this 
bt)()k  controversy,  wliieh  she  (hd,  by  having  a  copy  sent 
by  her  brother-in  law,  from  Phihulelphia,  Pa.,  with  the 
followiiior  lines,  in  lier  own  liand-writing,  pasted  on  the 
fly-leaf,  and  which,  of  course,  she  enclosed  to  him  in  the 
letter  of  order  for  the  book,  and  which  I  now  have  in 
good  preservation  : 

MR.  W.  II.  WESSON, 
From  Helen  Jones, 

January  17th,  1850, 

Mecklenburg  county,  Va. 

A  genuine  copy  of  this  book  is  rare;  and,  although  an 
English  book,  I  could  find  but  one  copy  in  the  four 
large  book  stores  of  I^iverpool,  England,  in  the 
year  1867. 

Well,  boys,  Virgil  says  something  about  digressions, 
and,  if  you,  after  awhile,  find  grass  on  mine,  you  may 
not  be  disappointed.  We  started  out  to  say  what  an 
old  man  said  in  a  book,  and,  as  some  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  had  gone  by  since  its  author  lived,  and  as 
Mrs.  Jones,  long  since  dead,  when  I  asked  her  if  there 
was  such  an  author  as  "  Herbert,"  replied  as  I  have 
written,  and  said,  whilst  Miss  Lucy  was  gone  for  the 
book,  that  George  Herbert  was  the  "good  man;" 
that  most  every  line  he  wrote  was  a  text,  and  that  he 
should  have  been  translated  to  hea\en. 

Xow,  boys,  if  I  have  digressed,  and  been  a  little 
tedious  in  telling  this  story,  recollect  that  I  was  years 
searching  for  this  book;  that  a  man  started  me  on 
its  track;  that  a  woman  encouraged  me  to  persevere  in 
my  searcli  for  it ;  and,  at  h\st,  it  was    the  woman  that 


84  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

discovered  and  presented  this  valued  book  to  me.  Let 
me  add,  that  to  the  women  we  are  indebted  for  very 
many  things  that  we  men  are  not  hasty  in  crediting 
them  with. 

The  story  being  of  temperance,  let  it  somewhat  apol- 
ogise for  my  intemperance  in  digression,  and  we  will 
now  have  this  long-promised  story  : 

Lud.  Cornanis  lived  in  Padua,  Italy,  and,  as  lie  was 
-quite  young  at  eighty-three  years  old,  the  last  time  we 
hear  from  him,  I  hope,  lives,  or  is  living  yet. 

"Having  observed  in  my  time  many  of  my  friends,  of 
excellent  wit  and  noble  disposition,  overthrown  and  un- 
done by  Intemperance;  who,  if  they  had  lived,  would 
have  been  an  ornament  to  the  world,  and  a  comfort  to 
their  friends  ;  I  thought  fit  to  discover  in  a  short  Trea- 
tise, that  Intemperance  was  not  such  an  evil,  but  it  might 
easily  be  remedied ;  which  I  undertake  the  more  will- 
ingly, because  divers  worthy  young  men  have  obliged 
me  unto  it.  For  when  they  saw  their  parents  and  kin- 
dred snatched  away  in  the  midst  of  their  days,  and  me 
contrary  wise,  at  the  age  of  eighty  and  one,  strong  and 
lusty ;  they  bad  a  great  desire  to  know  the  way  of  my 
life,  and  how  I  came  to  be  so.  Wherefore,  that  I  may 
satisfy  their  honest  desire,  and  withal  help  many  others, 
who  will  take  this  into  consideration,  I  will  declare  the 
causes  which  moved  me  to  forsake  Intemperance,  and 
live  a  sober  life,  expressing  also  the  means  which  I  have 
used  therein.  I  say  therefore,  that  the  infirmities,  which 
did  not  only  begin,  but  had  already  gone  far  in  me,  first 
caused  me  to  leave  Intemperance,  to  which  I  was  much 
addicted :  For  by  it,  and  my  ill  constitution  (having  a 
most  cold  and  moist  stomach),  I  fell  into  divers  diseases, 


85 

to-wit,  into  the  pain  of  the  stomach,  and  often  of  the 
side,  and  the  beginning  of  the  Gout,  with  ahnost  a  con- 
tinual fever  and  thirst. 

From  this  ill  temper  there  remained  little  else  to  be 
expected  of  me,  than  tliat  after  many  troubles  and  griefs 
I  should  quickly  come  to  an  end;  whereas  my  life- 
seemed  as  far  from  it  by  Nature,  as  it  was  near  it  by 
Intemperance.  When  therefore  I  was  thus  afflicted 
from  the  thirty-fifth  year  of  my  age  to  the  fortieth,  hav- 
ino-  tried  all  remedies  fruitlessly,  the  Physicians  told  me 

O  1/1/ 

that  yet  there  was  one  help  for  me,  if  I  could  constantly 
pursue  it,  to  wit,  a  sober  and  orderly  life :  for  this  had 
every  wav  great  force  for  the  recovering  and  preserving 
of  Health,  as  a  disorderly  life  to  the  overthrowing  of  it; 
as  I  too  well  by  experience  found.  For  temperance 
preserves  even  old  men  and  sickly  men :  But  In- 
temperance destroys  most  healthy  and  flourishing  con- 
stitutions: For  contrary  causes  have  contrary  etfects^ 
and  the  faults  of  Nature  are  often  amended  by  Art,  a& 
barren  grounds  are  made  fruitful  by  good  husbandry. 
They  added  withal,  that  unless  I  speedily  used  that 
remedy,  within  a  few  months  I  should  be  driven  to  that 
exigent,  that  there  would  be  no  help  for  me,  but  Death 
shortly  to  be  expected. 

Upon  this,  weighing  their  reasons  with  myself,  and 
abhorring  from  so  sudden  an  end,  and  finding  myself 
continually  oppressed  with  pain  and  sickness,  I  grew 
fully  persuaded,  that  all  my  griefs  arose  out  of  Intem- 
perance :  and  therefore  out  of  a  hope  of  avoiding  death 
and  pain,  I  resolved  to  live  a  temperate  life. 

Whereupon,  being  directed  by  them  in  the  way  I 
ought  to  hold,  I  understood,  that  the  food  I  was  to  use^ 


86 

was  such  as  belonged  to  sickly  constitutions,  and  that  in 
a  small  quantity.  This  they  bad  told  me  before  :  But 
I,  then  not  liking  that  kind  of  Diet,  followed  my  Appe- 
tite, and  did  eat  meats  pleasing  to  my  taste ;  and  when  I 
felt  inward  heats,  drank  delightful  wines,  and  that  in 
great  quantity  ;  telling  my  Physicians  nothing  thereof, 
as  is  the  custom  of  sick  people.  But  after  I  had  re- 
solved to  follow  Tenjperance  and  Reason,  and  saw  that 
it  was  no  hard  thing  to  do  so,  but  the  proper  duty  of 
man  ;  I  so  addicted  myself  to  this  course  of  life,  that  I 
never  went  a  foot  out  of  the  way.  Upon  this,  I  found 
within  a  few  days,  that  I  was  exceedingly  helped,  and  by 
continuance  thereof,  within  less  than  one  year  (although 
it  may  seem  to  some  incredible),  I  was  perfectly  cured 
of  all  my  infirmities. 

Being  now  sound  and  well,  I  began  to  consider  the 
force  of  Temperance,  and  to  think  thus  with  myself:  If 
Temperance  had  so  much  power  as  to  bring  me  health : 
how  much  more  to  preserve  it  I  Wherefore  I  began  to 
search  out  most  diligently  what  meats  were  agreeable 
unto  me,  and  what  disagreeable :  and  I  purposed  to  try, 
whether  those  that  pleased  my  taste  brought  me  com- 
modity or  discommodity;  and  whether  that  Proverb, 
wherewith  Gluttons  used  to  defend  themselves,  to-wit, 
That  which  favors  is  good  and  nourisheth,  be  consonant 
to  truth.  This  upon  trial  I  found  most  false  :  for  strong 
and  very  cool  wines  pleased  my  taste  best,  as  also 
n'jelons,-and  otber  fruit;  in  like  manner,  raw  lettuce, 
fish,  pork,,  sausages,  pulse,  and  cake  and  piecrust,  and 
the  like:   and  yet  all  tbese  I  found  hurtful. 

Therefore  trusting  on  experience,  I  forsook  all  these 
kind   of   meat>  and   drinks,  and    chose   that   wine  that 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  87 

fitted  mj  stomach,  and  in  such  measure  as  easily  might 
be  digested:  ahove  all,  taking  care  never  to  rise  with  a 
full  stomach,  hut  so  as  I  might  well  hoth  eat  and  drink 
more.  Bv  this  means,  within  less  than  a  year  I  was  not 
only  freed  from  all  those  evils  which  had  so  long  heset 
me,  and  were  almost  become  incurable  ;  but  also  after- 
wards I  fell  not  into  that  yearly  disease,  whereiuto  I 
was  wont,  when  I  pleased  my  Sense  and  Appetite. 
AVhich  benefits  also  still  continue,  because  from  the 
time  that  I  was  made  whole,  I  never  since  departed  from 
my  settled  course  of  Sobriety,  whose  admirable  power 
causetli  that  the  meat  and  drink  that  is  taken  in  fit  mea- 
sure, gives  true  strength  to  the  body,  all  superfluities, 
passing  away  without  diflSculty,  and  no  ill  humors  being 
enajendered  in  the  body. 

Yet  with  this  diet  I  avoided  other  hurtful  things  also, 
•as  too  much  heat  and  cold,  weariness,  watching,  ill  air, 
overmuch  U8e  of  the  benefit  of  marriao^e.  For  althoudi 
the  power  of  health  consists  most  in  the  proportion  of 
meat  and  drink,  yet  these  forenamed  things  have  also 
their  force.  I  preserved  me  also,  as  much  as  I  could, 
from  hatred  and  melancholy,  and  other  purturbations  of 
the  mind,  which  have  a  great  power  over  our  constitu- 
tions. Yet  could  I  not  so  avoid  all  these,  but  that  now 
and  then  I  fell  into  them,  which  gained  me  this  experi- 
•ence,  that  I  perceived  that  they  had  no  great  power  to 
hurt  those  bodies  which  were  kept  in  good  order  by  a 
moderate  Diet :  So  that  I  can  truly  say.  That  they  wljo 
in  these  two  things  that  enter  in  at  the  mouth, keep  a  fit 
proportion,  shall  receive  little  hurt  from  other  ex- 
cesses. 

'This  Galen  confirms,  when  he  says,  that  immoderate 


88  *'  CALAIS-MORALE." 

heats  and  colds,  and  winds  and  labors,  did  little  hurt 
him,  because  in  his  meats  and  drinks  he  kept  a  due 
moderation,  and  therefore  never  was  sick  by  any  of  these 
inconveniences,  except  it  were  for  only  one  day.  But 
mine  own  experience  confirmeth  tiiis  more  as  all  that 
know  me  can  testify :  For  having  endured  many  heats 
and  colds,  and  other  like  discommodities  of  the  body 
and  troubles  of  the  mind,  all  these  did  hurt  me  little^ 
whereas  they  hurt  them  very  much  w^ho  live  intemper- 
ately.  For  when  my  brother  and  others  of  my  kindred 
saw  some  great  powerful  men  pick  quarrels  against  me,, 
fearing  lest  I  should  be  overthrown,  they  were  possessed 
with  a  deep  Melancholy  (a  thing  usual  to  disorderly 
lives),  w^hich  increased  so  much  in  them,  that  it  brought 
them  to  a  sudden  end ;  but  I,  whom  that  matter  ought 
to  have  affected  most,  received  no  inconvenience  there^ 
by,  because  that  humor  abounded  not  in  me. 

Nay,  I  began  to  persuade  myself,  that  tbis  suit  and 
contention  was  raised  by  the  Divine  Providence,  that  I 
might  know^  what  great  power  a  sober  and  temperate 
life  hath  over  our  bodies  and  minds,  and  that  at  length 
I  should  be  a  conqueror,  as  also  a  little  after  it  came  to- 
pass;  For  in  the  end  I  got  the  victory,  to  my  great 
honor  and  no  less  profit,  whereupon  also  I  joyed  exceed- 
ingly, which  excess  of  joy  neither  could  do  me  any  hurt: 
By  which  it  is  manifest.  That  neither  melancholy  nor 
any  other  passion  can  hurt  a  temperate  life. 

Moreover,  I  say,  that  even  bruises,  and  squats,  and 
falls,  which  often  kill  others,  can  bring  little  grief  or 
hurt  to  those  that  are  temperate.  This  I  found  by  ex- 
perience when  I  was  seventy  years  old ;  for  riding  in  a 
coach  in  a  great  haste,  it  happened  that  the  coach  was- 
overturned,  and  then  vras  dragged  for  a  good  space  by 


89 

the  fury  of  the  horses,  whereby  my  head  and  whole  body 
was  sore  hurt,  and  also  one  of  my  arms  and  legs  put 
out  of  joint.  Beiuoj  carried  home,  when  the  Physicians 
saw  in  what  case  I  was,  they  concluded  that  I  would  die 
wnthin  three  days;  nevertheless,  at  a  venture,  two  reme- 
dies might  be  used,  letting  of  blood  and  purging,  that 
the  store  of  humors  and  inflammation  and  fever  (which 
w^as  certainly  expected)  might  be  hindered. 

But,  I,  considering  what  an  ordinary  life  I  had  led  for 
many  years  together,  which  must  needs  so  temper  the 
humors  of  the  body,  that  they  could  not  be  much  trou- 
bled, or  make  a  great  concourse,  refused  both  remedies, 
and  only  commanded  that  my  arm  and  leg  should  be  set, 
and  my  whole  body  anointed  with  oil ;  and  so  without 
other  remedy  or  inconvenience  I  recovered,  which 
seemed  as  a  miracle  to  the  Physicians ;  whence  I  con- 
clude, that  they  that  live  a  temperate  life  can  receive 
little  hurt  from  other  inconveniences. 

But  my  experience  taught  me  another  thing  also,  to- 
wit,  than  an  orderly  and  regular  life  can  hardly  be  al- 
tered without  exceeding  great  danger. 

About  four  years  since,  I  was  led,  by  the  advice  of 
Physicians,  and  the  daily  importunity  of  my  friends,  to 
add  something  to  my  usual  stint  and  measure.  Divers 
reasons  they  brought,  as  that  old  age  could  not  be  sus- 
tained with  so  little  meat  and  drink ;  which  yet  needs 
not  only  to  be  sustained,  but  also  to  gather  strength, 
which  could  not  be  but  by  meat  and  drink.  On  the 
other  side,  I  argued  that  Nature  was  contented  with  a 
little,  and  that  I  had  for  many  years  continued  in  good 
health  with  that  little  measure ;  that  Custom  was  turned 
into  Nature,  and  therefore  it  was  agreeable  to  reason, 
that  mv  vears  increasino^  and  streno-th  decreasins^,  my 


'90  *'  CALAIS-MORALE." 

stint  of  meat  and  drink  should  be  diminished  rather 
than  increased,  that  the  patient  might  be  proportionable 
to  the  agent,  and  especially  since  the  power  of  my 
stomach  every  day  decreased.  To  this  agreed  two 
Italian  Proverbs,  the  one  whereof  was,  "  He  that  will 
eat  much,  let  him  eat  little;  because  by  eating  little  he 
prolongs  his  life."  The  other  Proverb  w^as,  "  The  meat 
ivhich  remaineth  profits  more  than  that  which  is  eaten ;" 
by  which  is  intimated,  that  the  hurt  of  too  much  meat 
is  greater  than  the  commodity  of  meat  taken  in  a  mod- 
erate proportion. 

But  all  these  things  could  not  defend  me  against  their 
importunities.  Therefore  to  avoid  obstinacy  and  gratify 
my  friends,  at  length  I  yielded,  and  permitted  the  quan- 
tity of  meat  to  be  increased,  yet  but  two  ounces  only; 
for  whereas  before,  the  measure  of  my  whole  day's  meat, 
viz.,  of  my  bread,  and  eggs,  and  liesh,  and  broth,  was 
twelve  ounces  exactly  weighed,  I  increased  it  to  the 
quantity  of  two  ounces  more ;  and  the  measure  of  my 
drink,  which  before  was  fourteen  ounces,  I  made  now 
sixteen. 

This  addition,  after  ten  days,  wrought  so  much  upon 
me,  that  of  a  cheerful  and  merry  man  I  became  melan- 
choly and  choleric,  so  that  all  things  were  troublesome 
to  me ;  neither  did  I  know  well  what  I  did  or  said.  On 
the  twelfth  day,  a  pain  of  the  side  took  me,  which  held 
me  two  and  twenty  hours.  Upon  the  neck  of  it  came  a 
terrible  fever,  which  continued  thirty-five  days  and 
nights,  although  after  the  fifteenth  day  it  grew  less  and 
less ;  besides  all  this  I  could  not  sleep,  no,  not  a  quarter 
of  an  hour,  whereupon  all  gave  me  up  for  dead. 

Nevertheless,  I,  by  the  grace  of  God,  cured  mj'self 
only  with  returning  to  my  former   course  of  Diet,  al- 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  91 

though  I  was  now  seven t3'-eight  3'oiirs  old,  and  my  body 
•5pent  with  extreme  leannc^^s,  and  tlie  season  of  the  year 
was  winter,  and  most  cold  air;  and  I  am  confident  that, 
under  God,  nothing  help  me,  but  that  exact  rule  which 
I  had  so  long  continued  ;  in  all  which  time  I  felt  no  grief, 
«ave  now  and  then  a  little  indisposition  for  a  day  or 
hvo. 

For  the  Temperance  of  so  many  years  spent  ail  ill 
liumors,  and  suffered  not  any  new  of  that  kind  to  arise, 
neither  the  good  humors  to  be  corrupted  or  contract  any 
ill  quality,  as  usually  happens  in  old  men's  bodies,  which 
live  without  rule ;  for  there  is  no  malignity  of  old  age 
in  the  humors  of  my  body,  which  commonly  kills  men, 
•and  that  new  one  which  I  contracted  by  breaking  my 
'diet,  although  it  was  a  sore  evil,  yet  had  no  power  to 
kill  me. 

By  this  it  may  clearly  be  perceived  how  great  is  the 
power  of  order  and  disorder ;  whereof  the  one  kept  me 
•well  for  many  years,  the  other,  though  it  was  but  a  little 
excess,  in  a  few  days  had  so  soon  overthrowr:  me.  If 
the  world  consist  of  order,  if  our  corporal  life  depend 
on  the  harmony  of  humors  and  elements,  it  is  no  won- 
der should  preserve,  and  disorder  destroy.  Order  makes 
arts  easy,  and  armies  victorious,  and  retains  and  con- 
firms kingdoms,  cities,  and  families  in  peace.  Whence 
I  conclude,  That  an  orderly  life  is  the  most  sure  way 
and  ground  of  health  and  long  days,  and  the  true  and 
only  medicine  of  many  diseases. 

Xeither  can  any  man  deny  this  who  will  narrowly 
consider  it.  Hence  it  comes,  that  a  Physician,  when  he 
•cometh  to  visit  liis  patient,  prescribes  this  Physic  first, 
that  he   use  a  moderate  diet;   and  when  he   hath  cured 


92  "  CALAIS-xAIORALE." 

him  commends  tins  also  to  him,  if  he  will  live  in  health. 
Xeither  is  it  to  he  douhted,  but  that  he  shall  ever  after- 
live  free  from  diseases,  if  he  will  keep  such  a  course  of 
life ;  because  this  will  cut  off  all  causes  of  diseases,  so- 
that  he  shall  need  neither  Physic  nor  Physician  :  yea,  if 
he  will  give  his  mind  to  those  things  which  he  should, 
he  will  prove  himself  a  Physician,  and  that  a  very  com- 
plete one  ;  for  indeed  no  man  can  be  a  perfect  Physician 
to  another,  but  to  himself  only.  The  reason  whereof  is- 
this:  Every  one  by  long  experience  may  know  the 
qualities  of  his  own  nature,  and  what  hidden  properties 
it  hath,  what  meat  and  drink  agrees  best  with  it ;  which 
things  in  others  cannot  be  known  without  such  observa- 
tion as  is  not  easily  to  be  made  upon  others,  especially 
since  there  is  a  greater  diversity  of  tempers  than  of 
faces.  Who  w^ould  believe  that  old  wine  should  hurt 
my  stomach,  and  now  should  help  it,  or  that  cinnamon 
should  heat  me  more  than  pepper  ?  AVhat  Physician 
could  have  discovered  these  hidden  qualities  to  me,  if  I 
had  not  found  them  out  by  long  experience  ?  Where- 
fore one  to  another  cannot  be  a  perfect  Ph3'sician. 
Whereupon  I  conclude,  since  none  can  have  a  better 
Physician  than  himself,  nor  better  Physic  than  a  Tem- 
perate life.  Temperance  by  all  means  is  to  be  embraced. 

Xevertheless,  I  deny  not  but  that  Physicians  are  neces- 
sary, and  greatly  to  be  esteemed  for  the  knowing  and 
curing  of  diseases,  into  which  they  often  fall  who  live 
disorderly  :  For  if  a  friend  who  visits  thee  in  thy  sick- 
ness, and  only  comforts  and  condoles,  doth  perform  an 
acceptable  tiling  to  thee,  how  much  more  dearly  should 
a  Physician  be  esteemed,  who  not  only  as  a  friend  doth 
visit  thee,  but  help  thee  ! 

But  that  a  man  may  preserve  himself  in  health,  I  ad- 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  93 

Tise,  tliat  instead  of  a  Pbysician  a  regular  life  is  to  be 
■embraced,  wbicb,  as  is  manifest  by  experience,  is  a  natu- 
ral rbvsic  most  agreeable  to  us,  and  also  dolb  preserve 
even  ill  tempers  in  good  bealtb,  and  procure  tbat  tbey 
prolong  tbeir  life  even  to  a  bundred  years  and  more, 
^nd  that  at  length  they  shut  np  their  days  like  a  Lamp, 
•only  by  a  pure  consumption  of  the  radical  moisture, 
without  grief  or  pertnrlnUion  of  humors.  Many  have 
thought  that  this  could  be  done  by  Aurum  jjotabile,  or 
the  Philosopher's  stone,  sought  of  many,  and  found  of 
few;  but  surely  there  is  no  such  matter,  if  Temperance  be 
wanting. 

But  sensual  men  (as  most  are),  desiring  to  satisfy  their 
Appetite  and  pamper  their  belly,  although  they  see  them- 
selves ill  handled  by  their  intemperance,  yet  shun  a 
3ober  life  ;  because,  they  say,  It  is  better  to  please  the 
Appetite  (though  they  live  ten  years  less  than  otherwise 
tbey  should  do)  than  always  to  live  under  bit  and  bridle. 
But  they  consider  not  of  how  great  moment  ten  years 
:are  in  mature  age,  wherein  wisdom  and  all  kind  of  vir- 
tues is  most  vigorous ;  which,  but  in  that  age,  can  hardly 
be  perfected.  And  tbat  I  may  say  nothing  of  other 
things,  are  not  almost  all  the  learned  books  that  we 
have,  written  by  their  Authors  in  that  age,  and  those 
ten  years  which  they  set  at  nauglit  in  regard  of  their 
belly? 

Besides,  these  Belly-gods  say,  that  an  orderly  life  is  so 
hard  a  tiling  that  it  cannot  be  kept.  To  this  I  answer, 
that  Galeu  kept  it,  and  held  it  for  the  best  Physic ;  so 
did  Plato  also,  and  Isocrates,  and  Tully,  and  many  others 
of  the  Ancients;  and  in  our  age,  Paul  the  Third,  and 
Cardinal  Bembo.  who  therefore  lived  so  lons^;  and  amoni; 
our  Dukes,  Laudus  and   Donatns,  and   manv  others  of 


94  ''  CALAIS-MORALE." 

inferior  condition,  not  only  in  the   citv,  but  also  in  vil- 
lages and  hamlets. 

Wherefore,  since  many  have  observed  a  regular  life,. 
both  of  old  times  and  later  years,  it  is  no  such  thing: 
which  may  not  be  performed ;  especially  since  in  observ- 
it  there  needs  not  many  and  curious  things,  but  only 
that  a  man  should  begin,  and  by  little  and  little  accus- 
tom himself  unto  it. 

Neither  doth  it  hinder,  that  Plato  says,  That  they  whO' 
are  employed  in  the  commonwealth  cannot  live  regu- 
larly, because  they  must  often  endure  heats,  and  colds,, 
and  winds,  and  showers,  and  divers  labors,  which  suit 
not  with  an  orderly  life :  For  I  answer,  That  those  in- 
conveniences are  of  no  great  moment  (as  I  showed  be- 
fore) if  a  man  be  temperate  in  meat  and  drink,  which  is 
both  easy  for  commonweal's  men,  and  very  convenient,, 
both  that  they  may  preserve  themselves  from  diseases,, 
which  hinder  public  employment;  as  also  that  their 
mind,  in  all  things  wherein  they  deal,  may  be  more  lively 
and  vigorous. 

But  some  may  say.  He  which  lives  a  regular  life,  eat- 
ing always  light  meats  and  in  a  little  quantity,  what  diet 
shall  he  use  in  diseases,  which  being  in  health  he  hath 
anticipated  ?  I  answer  first,  Mature,  which  endeavours 
to  preserve  a  man  as  much  as  she  can,  teacheth  us  how 
to  govern  ourselves  in  sickness  :  For  suddenly  it  takes 
away  our  appetite,  so  that  we  can  eat  but  a  very  little, 
wherewith  she  is  very  well  contented :  So  that  a  sick 
man,  whether  he  bath  lived  heretofore  orderly  or  disor- 
derly, when  he  is  sick,  ought  not  to  eat  but  such  meats 
as  are  agreeable  to  his  disease,  and  that  in  much  smaller 
quantity  than  when  he  was  well.     For  if  lie  should  keep 


9S 

his  former  proportion,  Xature,  which  is  ah'eady  burdened 
with  a  disease,  would  be  wholly  oppressed.  Secondly,  I 
answer  better,  that  he  which  lives  a  temperate  life,  can- 
not fall  into  diseases,  and  but  very  seldom  into  indispo- 
sitions, because  Temperance  takes  away  the  causes  of 
diseases ;  and  the  cause  being  taken  away,  there  is  no 
place  for  the  eiiect. 

Wherefore,  since  an  orderly  life  is  so  profitable,  so 
virtuous,  so  decent,  and  so  holy,  it  is  worthy  by  all 
means  to  be  embraced ;  especially  since  it  is  easy  and 
most  agreeable  to  the  nature  of  Man.  No  man  that 
follows  it,  is  bound  to  eat  and  drink  so  little  as  I:  So 
man  is  forbidden  to  eat  fruit  or  fish,  which  I  eat  not : 
For  I  eat  little,  because  a  little  sufficeth  my  weak  stom- 
ach ;  and  I  abstain  from  fruit  and  fish,  and  the  like,  be- 
cause they  hurt  me.  But  they  who  find  benefit  in  these 
meats  may,  yea  ought  to  use  them  ;  yet  all  must  needs 
take  heed  lest  they  take  a  greater  quantity  of  any  meat 
or  drink  (though  most  agreeable  to  them)  than  their 
stomach  can  easily  digest :  So  that  he  which  is  offended 
with  no  kind  of  meat  and  drink,  hath  the  quantity,  and 
not  the  quality  for  his  rule,  which  is  very  easy  to  be  ob^ 
served. 

Let  no  man  here  object  unto  me,  That  there  are 
many,  who  though  they  live  disorderly,  yet  continue  in 
health  to  their  lives'  end :  Because  since  this  is  at  the 
best  but  uncertain,  dangerous,  and  very  rare,  the  pre- 
suming upon  it  ought  not  to  lead  us  to  a  disorderly  life. 

It  is  not  the  part  of  a  wise  man  to  expose  himself  to 
so  many  dangers  of  diseases  and  death,  only  upon  a 
hope  of  a  happy  issue,  which  yet  befalls  very  few.  An 
old  man  of   an  ill  constitution,  but  living  orderlv,  is 


96  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

more  sure  of  his  life  tliau  the  most  strong  young  man 
who  lives  disorderly. 

J3ut  some,  too  much  given  to  Appetite,  object.  That  a 
Ions'  life  is  no  such  desirable  thino^  because,  that  after 
one  is  once  sixty-five  years  old,  all  the  time  we  live  after 
is  rather  death  than  life:  But  these  err  greatly,  as  I 
will  show  by  myself,  recounting  the  delights  and  plea- 
sures in  this  age  of  eighty-three,  which  now  I  take,  and 
which  are  such  as  that  men  generally  account  me  happy. 

I  am  continually  in  health,  and  I  am  so  nimble,  that 
I  can  easily  get  on  horseback  without  the  advantage  of 
the  ground,  and  sometimes  I  go  up  high  stairs  and  hills 
on  foot.  Then,  I  am  ever  ch*eerful,  merry,  and  well- 
contented,  free  from  all  troubles  and  troublesome 
thoughts ;  in  whose  place  joy  and  peace  have  taken  up 
their  standing  in  my  heart.  I  am  not  weary  of  life, 
which  I  pass  with  great  delight.  I  confer  often  with 
worthy  men,  excelling  in  w^it,  learning,  behaviour,  and 
other  virtues.  When  I  cannot  have  their  company,  I 
give  myself  to  the  reading  of  some  learned  book,  and 
afterwards  to  wa^iting ;  making  it  my  aim  in  all  things, 
bow  I  may  help  others  to  the  furthest  of  my  power. 

All  these  thinge  I  do  at  my  ease,  and  at  fit  seasons, 
and  in  mine  own  houses ;  which,  besides  that  they  are 
in  the  fairest  place  of  this  learned  City  of  Padua,  are 
very  beautiful  and  convenient  above  most  in  this  age, 
being  so  built  by  me  according  to  the  rules  of  Architec- 
ture, that  they  are  cool  in  summer,  and  warm  in  winter. 

I  enjoy  also  ni}' gardens,  and  those  drives,  parted  with 
rills  of  running  water,  which  truly  is  very  delightful. 
Some  times  of  the  year  I  enjoy  the  pleasure  of  the 
Enganean  hills,  where  also  I  have  fountains   and  gar- 


97 

dens,  and  a.  very  convenient  house.  At  other  times,  I 
repair  to  a  village  of  mine,  seated  in  the  valley ;  which 
is  therefore  very  pleasant,  because  many  ways  thither 
are  so  ordered,  that  they  all  meet,  and  end  in  a  fair  plot 
of  jrround  ;  in  the  midst  whereof  is  a  Church  suitable 
to  the  condition  of  the  place.  This  place  is  washed  with 
the  river  of  Brenta;  on  both  sides  whereof  are  great 
and  fruitful  fields,  well  manured  and  adorned  with  many 
habitations.  In  former  time  it  was  not  so,  because  the 
place  was  moorish  and  unhealthy,  fitter  for  beasts  than 
men.  But  I  drained  the  ground,  and  made  the  air 
good:  Whereupon  men  fiocked  thither,  and  built  houses 
with  happy  success.  By  this  means  the  place  is  come  to 
that  perfection  we  now  see  it  is  :  So  that  I  can  truly  say. 
That  I  have  both  given  God  a  Temple,  and  men  to  wor- 
ship him  in  it :  The  memory  whereof  is  exceeding  de- 
lightful to  me. 

Sometimes  I  ride  to  some  of  the  neighbor  cities,  that 
I  may  enjoy  the  sight  and  the  communication  of  my 
friends,  as  also  of  excellent  Artificers  in  architecture, 
painting,  stone-cutting,  music,  and  husbandry,  whereof 
in  this  age  there  is  great  plenty.  I  view  their  pieces,  I 
compare  them  with  those  of  Antiquity :  And  ever  I 
learn  somewhat  which  is  worthy  of  my  knowledge  :  I 
survey  palaces,  gardens,  and  antiquities,  public  fabrics, 
temples,  and  fortifications ;  neither  omit  I  any  thing  that 
may  either  teach  or  delight  me.  I  am  much  pleased 
also  in  my  travels,  with  the  beauty  of  situation.  iSTeither 
is  this  my  pleasure  made  less  by  the  decaying  dullness  of 
my  senses,  which  are  all  in  their  perfect  vigor,  but  es- 
pecially my  Taste ;  so  that  any  simple  fare  is  more 
savoury  to  me  now,  than  heretofore,  when  I  was  given 
to  disorder  and  all  the  delights  that  could  be. 


98  *'  CALAIS-MORALE." 

To  change  my  bed,  troubles  me  not ;  I  sleep  well  and 
quietly  any  where,  and  my  dreams  are  fair  and  pleasant. 
But  this  chiefly  delights  me,  that  my  advice  hath  taken 
eflect  in  the  reducing  of  many  rude  and  untoiled  places 
in  my  country,  to  cultivation  and  good  husbandry.  I 
was  one  of  those  that  was  deputed  for  the  managing  of 
that  work,  and  abode  in  those  sunny  places  two  whole 
months  in  the  heat  of  summer,  (which  in  Italy  is  very 
great)  receiving  not  any  hurt  or  inconvenience  thereby: 
So  great  is  the  power  and  efficacy  of  that  Temperance 
which  ever  accompanied  me. 

These  are  the  delights  and  solaces  of  my  old  age, 
which  is  altogether  to  be  preferred  before  other's  youth : 
Because  that  by  temperance  and  the  Grace  of  God  I 
feel  not  those  purturbations  of  bodj^  and  mind,  where- 
with both  young  and  old  are  afflicted. 

Moreover,  by  this  also,  in  what  estate  I  am,  may  be 
discovered,  because  at  these  years  (viz.,  eightj'-three)  I 
have  made  a  most  pleasant  comedy,  full  of  honest  wit 
and  merriment:  w^hich  kind  of  Poems  useth  to  be  the 
child  of  Youth,  which  it  most  suits  withal  for  variety 
and  pleasantness;  as  a  Tragedy  with  old  Age,  by  reason 
of  the  sad  events  which  it  contains.  And  if  a  Greek 
poet  of  old  was  praised,  that  at  the  age  of  seventy-three 
years  he  writ  a  Tragedy,  why  should  I  be  accounted  less 
happy,  or  less  myself,  who  being  ten  years  older  have 
made  a  Comedy  ? 

Xow  lest  there  should  be  any  delight'  wanting  to  my 
old  age,  I  daily  behold  a  kind  of  immortality  in  the  suc- 
cession of  my  posterity.  For  when  I  come  home,  I  find 
eleven  grand  children  of  mine,  all  the  sons  of  one 
father  and  mother,  all  in  perfect  health  ;  all  as  far  as  I 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  99 

can  conjecture,  very  apt  and  well  given  both  for  learn- 
ing and  behaviour.  I  am  delighted  with  their  music 
and  fashion,  and  I  myself  also  sing  often  ;  because  I  have 
now  a  clearer  voice,  than  ever  I  had  in  my  life. 

By  which  it  is  evident,  tbat  the  life  which  I  live  at 
this  age,  is  not  a  dead,  dumpish,  and  sour  life ;  but  cheer- 
ful, lively,  and  pleasant :  iN'either  if  I  had  my  wish, 
would  I  chiwige  age  and  constitution  with  them  who  fol- 
low their  youthful  appetites,  although  they  be  of  a  most 
strong  temper:  Because  such  are  daily  exposed  to  a 
thousand  dangers  and  deaths,  as  daily  experience  show- 
eth,  and  I  also,  when  I  was  a  young  man,  too  well  found. 
I  know  how  inconsiderate  that  age  is,  and,  though  sub- 
ject to  death,  yet  continually  afraid  of  it:  for  death  to 
all  young  men  is  a  terrible  thing,  as  also  to  those  that 
live  in  sin,  and  follow  their  appetites;  whereas  I  by  the 
experience  of  so  many  years  have  learned  to  give  way 
to  Reason :  whence  it  seems  to  me,  not  only  a  shameful 
thing  to  fear  that  which  cannot  be  avoided;  but  also  I 
hope,  when  I  shall  come  to  that  point,  I  shall  find  no 
little  comfort  in  the  favor  of  Jesus  Christ.  Yet  I  am 
sure  that  my  end  is  far  from  me:  for  I  know  that  (set- 
ting casualities  aside)  I  shall  not  die  but  by  a  pure  reso- 
lution :  because  that  by  the  regularity  of  my  life  I  have 
shut  out  death  all  other  ways;  and  that  in  a  fair  and  de- 
sirable death,  which  Xature  brings  byway  of  resolution. 

Since,  therefore,  a  temperate  life  is  so  happy  and 
pleasant  a  thing ;  what  remains,  but  that  I  should  wish 
all  who  have  the  care  of  themselves,  to  embrace  it  with 
open  arms  ? 

Many  things  more  might  be  said  in  commendation 
hereof:  but  left  in  any  thing  I  forsake  that  Temperance 
w^hich  I  have  found  so  good,  I  here  make  an  end." 


100  ''  CALAIS-MORALE.' 


^Frorro  Charleston  Courier,  (T)eo.  9,  186 S^ 


Corn,    Cotton,    Carolina, 


ESSRS.  Editoks  : — I  wish,  through  your  paper,  ta 
iS^  make  my  second  and  last  appeal  to  cotton,  hoping- 
my  brother  farmers  may  profit  from  my  experience. 

The  writer  is  the  "Southern  Planter,"  who  wrote  to* 
you  from  Liverpool,  England,  on  this  subject  in  the 
month  of  September,  1867.  Some  speculators  and  spin- 
ners on  the  continent,  profited  largely  from  that  letter. 
My  associations  with  cotton  factors  and  Manchester  spin- 
ners since  should  give  some  credence  to  my  assertions ; 
besides,  I  have  had  three  practical  years  since  the  war, 
growing  long  and  short  cotton,  and  have  this  day  deter- 
mined to  grow  no  more  under  the  present  state  of  af- 
fairs, but  offer  my  advice  free  to  those  who  are  either 
forced  or  willing  to  continue  it. 

I  frankly  told  the  Liverpool  factors,  last  season,  that 
if  they  continued  to  bear  the  price  of  cotton  even  be- 
low 9d.,  that  price,  with  the  Government  tax  here,  would 
ruin  very  many  cotton  growers  in  my  section,  and  in  my 
opinion  it  would  materially  afiect  the  future  supply  from 
America,  and  that  it  was  to  the  interest  of  the  Manches- 
ter spinners  not  to  aid  the  moneyed  men  and  speculators 
to  trample  their  best  friends,  the  cotton  growers,  in  the 
dust ;  that,  in  my  opinion,  it  would  be  to  their  interest 


101 

not  to  let  cotton  go  below  lOd.,  as  I  knew  the  continued 
cultivation  of  cotton  in  America  was  precarious,  and 
that  many  2ccre  desperately  forced  to  grow  it  now,  but 
would  change  their  tactics  so  soon  as  they  had  it  in  their 
power;  but  money  has  no  ears.  Down,  down  went  cot- 
ton, and  the  poor  and  needy  farmers  were  forced  to  sell 
at  whatever  price  they  could  get,  as  was  too  well  known 
by  those  whose  interest  it  was  to  have  it  so.  The  poor 
farmers  had  to  pocket  the  loss,  and  add  many  extra 
soirees  to  the  houses  of  the  rich. 

I  hold  that  God  never  created  the  superior  animals 
for  beasts  of  burden,  unless  they  submitted  to  it,  and 
that  the  glory  is  not  in  never  falling,  but  in  rising  every 
time  one  does  fall ;  I  know,  also,  that  the  plainest  rea- 
sons cannot  be  instilled  into  unbelief;  indeed,  it  is  im- 
possible to  make  a  man  believe  what  he  does  not  under- 
stand; but  how  to  make  a  living,  is  one  of  the  every 
day  lessons  of  our  lives.  Does  it  not  appear  strange 
that  we  do  not  oftener  think  well  on  this  subject,  in- 
stead of  going,  as  it  were,  bij  chance,  hoping  for  some- 
thing profitable  to  "  turn  up,"  and  although  nine  out  of 
ten  meet  disappointment,  yet  even  this  does  not  make 
them  think. 

"Well,  I  know,  Messrs.  Editors,  that  you  think  this  to 
be  a  strange  way  to  "  talk  cotton.'''  Allow  me  to  say 
that  it  was  once  called  *^King,"  and  we  should  be  cau- 
tious in  the  presence  of  Princes. 

Certainly  by  this  time  nearly  every  planter  can  look 
back  at  his  profits,  losses,  and  vexations  in  cultivating 
cotton.  I  am  sure,  few  would  continue  it,  with  the  next 
year's  tax,  two  and  a  half  cents  per  pound,  and  the  vexa- 
tious labor,  if  they  could  find  another  field  for  operating. 
:N'ow,  I  wish  to  present  that  field  to  them. 


102  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

Every  man  worthy  the  name  of  planter,  knows  that 
when  he  hires  vagabond  negroes  at  a  money  price  to 
w^ork  his  depleted  fields,  buys  manures,  and  goes  in  debt 
on  the  faith  of  the  crop  to  carry  hmi  through  the  year, 
that,  to  say  the  least,  it  is  a  precarious  business,  leaving 
out  of  the  count,  bad  seasons,  low  prices,  high  taxes^ 
caterpillars  and  thieves.  With  such  prospects,  who  cart 
hold  that  energy  necessary  to  success.  It  must  be  some- 
of  those  who  do  not  think.  Indeed,  I  am  sorry  to  add„ 
that  the  most  practical  answer  has  been  taught  to  many 
b}^  the  sad  experience  of  the  past  three  years,  and  left 
many  behind  hope  or  thought  on  the  cotton  subject  for 
the  future. 

I  will  show  up  the  remedy,  which  is  easy,  in  my 
opinion.  In  the  first  place,  let  no  one  cultivate  an  acre 
of  land  which  he  cannot  calculate  clearly  to  pay  a  profit 
without  manure;  have  but  few  laborers,  and  those  per- 
sonally known  and  to  be  of  good  character  and  indus- 
trious; then  to  be  certain  before  he  plants  a  seed  of  cot- 
ton,  to  plant  enough  grain  to  insure  a  home  supply  ;  and 
as  the  negroes  will  not  live  with  live  hogs,  but  must 
choose  the  meat,  add  to  his  written  contract  the  authority 
to  hold  the  cotton  crop  for  three  months  after  Christmas- 
to  pay  hire,  and  if  possible  secure  only  a  crop  of  one 
and  a  half  millions  of  bales  of  cotton,  which  will  pay 
the  producers  largely  more  than  if  they  attempted  to 
make  three  millions  of  bales  the  old  way,  and  verify 
my  assertion  that  poor  men  can  be  rich  if  they  choose 
to  be.  The  planters  have  this  thing  perfectly  in  their 
power,  and  surely  they  might  be  as  smart  as  the  ^egro 
Loyal  League,  which  spreads  over  the  whole  country 
secretly  as  if  by  magic.  I  say  the  planters  have  it  now 
in  their  easy  power  to  make  the  same  parties  row  them 


103 

down  salt  river,  who  rowed  them  "up"  last  season. 
Manufacture  all  the  cotton  you  can  at  home  ;  if  no  mills, 
use  the  old  spinning  wheel.  You  do  not  need  much 
cloth  now.  AVhere  is  that  false  patriotism  which  has 
caused  so  many  nations  to  use  their  own  coarse  ma- 
terials, rather  than  huy  fine  ones,  and  that  too,  just  to 
spite  their  neighbors?  Really,  we  can  do  so,  because 
our  poverty  justifies  coarse  cloth.  Fie  on  the  man  who 
bought  corn  all  last  summer  from  East  Tennessee  to  feed 
his  laborers  (the  writer  did  it),  and  these  East  Tennes- 
seans  took  his  cotton  money  willingly  to  pay  for  their 
corn ;  but  I  am  not  sure  that  they  would  give  the  poor 
rebels  a  bushel  if  they  were  starving  for  it. 

Well,  newspapers,  Xeil  &  Co.,  and  other  circulars  put 
strange  notions  in  people's  heads  about  cotton,  the  big 
crops  to  be  made  everywhere  else,  and  that  England  can 
do  without  a  bale  of  American  cotton.  The  writer  has 
had  letters  to  that  effect,  1866  and  1867,  from  England. 
Allow  him  to  say,  this  is  not  a  fact,  and,  that  he  almost 
knows  if  fifty  cents  per  pound  could  produce  no  more 
cotton  in  India,  Egypt,  and  Brazil,  than  has  been  showed 
up,  how  can  twenty  cents  the  pound  be  expected  to  in- 
crease the  supply  ? 

The  three  thousand  millions  invested  in  cotton  ma- 
chinery on  the  Continent  must  be  fed,  as  well  as  the 
operatives  dependent  on  it ;  and  whilst  I  acknowledge 
that  we  are  slaves  to  our  former  slaves,  shall  we  tamely 
submit  to  continue  even  our  children  as  the  hewers  of 
wood  and  drawers  of  water  to  cotton  lords  and  specu- 
lators ?  I  repeat  again  it  will  be  our  own  choosing,  and 
that  he  who  will  go  stumbling  on  the  old  system  to  pro- 
duce and  continue  these  results,  justly  suffers. 

Planter. 


104  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

P.  S. — Let  lis  make  our  own  niamires  until  we  make 
money  to  buy  and  pay  for  the  foreign  ;  we  will  then  get 
it  purer  and  it  will  be  surely  profitable.  Things  are 
changed  ;  we  are  no  longer  compelled  to  make  more 
cotton  to  buy  more  negroes  to  wear  out  more  lands. 

WM.  H.  WESSON. 

Xov.  25,1868. 


November  27th,  1881.  Just  thirteen  years  are  num- 
bered with  the  past,  and  the  great  Atlanta,  Ga.,  Cotton 
Exposition  (the  first  ever  held  anywhere  before)  is  in 
its  second  month.  Amongst  the  lions,  at  the  show  and 
in  the  newspapers,  is  Mr.  Jones,  who,  on  the  old  system 
of  farming  cotton,  had  become  bankrupt ;  but,  by  the 
wonderful  common-sense  change  in  his  tactics — that  is, 
by  reducing  his  number  of  acres  cultivated  to  two 
mules  and  within  the  compass  of  his  labor  and  capital — 
he,  in  a  short  time,  had  worked  out  of  the  quagmire  of 
debt  (seven  thousand  dollars),  and  was  now  indepedent. 
This  w^as  also  the  case  with  many  of  his  neighbors,  who 
followed  his  example. 

Thirteen  years  since,  when  I  wrote  to  the  planters  to 
do  as  Mr.  Jones  has  done,  the}'  could  not  expect  less 
than  twenty  cents  per  pound  for  their  cotton.  Mr. 
Jones  has  sold  at  ten  cents,  paid  otf  his  debts,  and  has 
gotten  rich,  and  tiiis,  too,  while  the  crop  reached  five 
or  six  millions  of  bales. 

It  might  be  said  that  my  piece  commenced  with  the 
"  Last  appeal  about  cotton."  A  prophet  has  no  honor 
in   "  his  own   country,"  and,  indeed,  in  this  case,  the 


"CALAIS-MORALE."  105 

profits  of  liuiulreds  of  millions  were  not  honored.     So, 
let  it  be. 

This  thing  was  so  clear  to  me  that  I  wrote  from  Paris, 
France,  in  December. 

The  natural  business  of  man  is  to  cultivate  the  earth 
and  subsist  on  its  produce.  The  wise  know  and  enquire, 
says  the  Indian  proverb,  but  the  ignorant  know  not  even 
what  to  enquire  for. 

Ignorance  must  be  the  main  cause  of  the  want  of 
profits  and  success  in  farming  in  the  Southern  States, 
to  a  great  degree,  before  the  war,  and  even  since.  I 
have  seen  the  African  failure,  both  before  and  after  the 
war,  and  ignorance  was  clearly  the  secret ;  therefore, 
the  white  must  attribute  to  this  fact  their  own  want  of 
success. 

Indeed,  I  am  induced  to  believe  that  a  majority  of 
them  have  no  system  ;  no  accounts,  and  no  calculation 
of  the  cost  of  producing  a  crop  of  cotton.  They  do  not 
seem  to  consider  what  sum  the  crop  made  will  net  in 
money,  nor  do  they  take  into  their  account  that  a  few 
acres  of  good  land,  well  cultivated,  are  almost  certain 
to  leave  a  profit,  whilst  too  much  land,  badly  culti- 
vated, is  sure  to  leave  a  loss. 

They  borrow  and  buy  at  a  disadvantage,  they  sell  at  a 
disadvantage,  and,  like  the  unthrifty,  do  everything  at 
a  disadvantage.  The  majority  are  so  hard  pressed  for 
money  that  they  are  compelled  to  hurry  their  crops  to 
market.  Thus,  as  supply  and  demand  rules  the  values 
of  every  article  of  produce,  the  markets  are  crowded 
with  cotton,  the  price  goes  down  ;  and,  if  there  be  a 
reaction  before  the  season  closes,  the  speculators  only 
oret  the  benefit  of  it. 


106 

In  1868,  I  invested  a  small  sum  of  money,  which  I 
had  left  in  Xew  York,  in  cotton,  to  back  my  judgment 
of  what  had  been  published  by  me  in  the  Charleston 
Courier.  I  had  it  sold  in  April,  held  three  or  four 
months,  and  the  cotton  brought  twice  as  much  as  it  had 
cost,  an  unheard  of  thing  in  this  article. 

But  I  must  apologize  for  the  planters.  They  had  be- 
come demoralized  by  the  great  war  and  the  laborers,  the 
negroes,  had  gone  at  "large."  Their  credit  had  gone 
down,  except  with  the  dealers  in  Fertilizers;  so  they 
bought  of  them  very  largely,  and  of  course,  enlarged 
their  farming  operations,  amending  to  this  charge,  and 
made  the  fortunes  of  one  party  at  least,  the  manufac- 
turers of  the  Fertilizers.  As  men  in  debt  seldom  exer- 
cise common  sense  in  their  whole  business,  this  '*  little 
secret, "  that  Mr.  Jones  was  compelled  by  necessity  to 
discover,  was  hidden  to  them  for  so  many  years.  I  agree 
that  I  am  not  much  of  a  farmer,  that  my  first  lesson 
was  learned  in  my  boyhood,  from  the  frontis-piece  on 
Cottom's  Virginia  and  iSTorth  Carolina  Almanac.  A 
man  holding  the  handles  of  a  plow,  with  the  motto,  "  he 
that  by  the  plough  would  thiive,  must  himself,  either 
hold  or  drive,"  and  again,  in  Skinner's  Plough,  Loom 
and  Anvil,  and  Ruffin's  Farmer's  Eegister,  I  read  in 
these  books,  that  thorough  draining,  deep  ploughing, 
and  thorough  cultivation,  were  the  secrets  of  good  farm- 
ing. I  had  tried  it  for  forty  years,  when  I  attempted  to 
advise  and  write  in  regard  to  cotton,  and  after  thirteen 
years,  I  find  out  by  Mr.  Jones,  of  Georgia,  that  I  was 
correct  in  this  thinof. 


lor 


^inn  %ti  Wm>  W.  '^$i>mn. 


BY  J.  M.  CONRAD. 


I  have  a  friend,  whose  name  is  AVesson,, 

A  queer  old  chap  is  he, 
And  those  who  wish  to  learn  a  lesson, 

In  queerest  things,  may  he 
Instructed  hy  my  tale. 
There's  no  man  in  the  world,  I  know% 

So  queer  in  every  thing ; 
And  prose  would  very  feehly  show^ 

How^  queer.     My  muse  shall  hring 
Her  power  the  truth  to  unvail. 

The  chills  and  fever  stopped  his  growth 

At  four  feet  high,  or  more  ; 
lie's  thin  and  sallow  ;   hy  my  troth. 

You  never  saw  before 
So  queer  a  little  man. 
He's  old — how  old,  I  cannot  say — 

Methusela  was  old ; 
His  wrinkled  brow,  and  hair  so  grey,. 

Bespeak  an  age  untold  ! 

Then  guess  his  age  who  can. 

His  gait  is  not  a  graceful  amble. 

Of  little  men  oft  true ; 
But  is  a  wriggling,  twisting  shamble,. 

Grotesque  enough  to  view, 
When  hast'ning  on  his  way. 


108 


His  grizzled  locks  he  never  cuts, 

Nor  plucks  from  head  or  chiii ; 
For,  Sampson-like,  in  them  he  puts  \ 

His  hope  of  strength,  and  glories  in  | 

His  tangled  mass  of  grej.  ! 

i 

He's  queer  in  dress ;  for  on  his  head  ; 

He  wears  a  beaver  hat, 

Which,  fourteen  years  ago,  'tis  said,  I 

Was  bought  in  Paris,  at  [ 

Five  francs — no  more  nor  less.  ' 
'This  ancient  cov'ring  plainly  speaks 

Of  service  rous^h  and  lono; ;  "                     i 
But,  faithful  still,  it  nobly  seeks 

Its  service  to  prolong,  j 

And  decorate  his  dress.  i 


.He  wears  three  coats,  and  sometimes  four,  i 

As  weather  may  dictate  ;  ! 

And  then,  perhaps,  he  puts  on  more  ;  | 

Eut  this  I  will  not  state  j 

To  be  his  constant  rule.  | 

Two  vests  he  wears,  beneath  these  coats,  ; 

"  All  buttoned  down  before  :  " 

And,  under  these,  he  always  '^  totes  "  i 

Two  heavy  shirts,  or  more —  ; 

All  this  to  keep  him  cool !  ! 

His  pants  are  always  made  in  pairs  ;  j 

Of  these  I  cannot  tell,  | 
If  three  or  four  or  more  he  wears ; 

But  this,  I  know,  they  swell  i 

His  legs  quite  much  and  cheat.  '\ 

His  shoes  are  sometimes  verij  tall,  \ 

Perhaps  as  high  as  ten ;                                          '  [ 

Again  he  wears  them  very  small —  i 

Four  pairs  of  socks  are  then  j 

Discarded  from  his  feet.  \ 


CALAIS-MORALE."  109 


He  smokes  a  pipe  of  corn-cob  made, 

AVith  stem  quite  short  and  foul ; 
He  lights  ^vith  sulphur  matches,  said 

Tobe  the  very  soul 
Of  Lucifer,  below. 
Upon  his  shouhler,  sharply  built. 

You'll  often  see  him  bear 
A  carpet-bag,  upon  the  hilt 

Of  an  old  innbrcllar 

"  From  Paris,"  you  must  know. 

Behold  the  picture  I  have  drawn. 

And  you  will  see  the  man ; 
But,  ere  my  task  is  fully  done, 

I'll  tell  you,  if  I  can. 

How  high  his  genius  climbs. 
On  meeting  him,  you  soon  will  find 

He's  neither  deaf  nor  dumb  ; 
He  hears,  and  treasures  in  his  mind, 

AVise  sayings — such  as  come 
Most  usefullv  at  times. 


He  talks  !    Great  Jupiter  !    he  seems  j 

To  have  an  endless  store  •      1 

Of  wind  and  words,  and  these,  in  streams,  \ 

Like  mountain  torrents,  pour  \ 

Upon  the  wond'ring  ear.  i 

Indeed  he  Udks,  and  sometimes  well,  \ 

Li  Herbert's  words,  'twould  seem  ;  ' 

But  mortal  never  heard  him  dwell  : 

On  one  specific  theme,  j 

Five  minutes  in  a  year.  .: 

I 

i 

But  when  he  holds  no  captive  bound,  \ 

His  rattling  tongue  to  hear,  ; 

His  inkhorn  seized,  in  mimic  sound,  , 

He  scratches  on  the  ear  j 

Of  meek,  submissive  Cap.  ] 


110 


And  not  content  with  writing  prose, 

He  strives  to  be  a  poet ; 
And  courts  the  Muses,  tho'  he  knows, 

Or  surely  ought  to  know  it, 
They  spurn  the  queer  old  chap. 

His  home — but  ah !  how  shall  I  paint 

The  home  of  such  a  man  ! 
Oonfusion  reigns ;   things  old  and  quaint 

Lie  scattered  round  ;  no  plan 
Or  system  in  their  placing. 
And  here  no  human  face  is  seen. 

Except  his  queer  proiile  ; 
A  pack  of  hungry  dogs,  unclean 

And  rude,  with  filth  defile 
The  picture  I  am  tracing. 

ITow,  stranger,  if  you  wish  to  know 

This  strangely  queer  old  man, 
^Tis  but  a  little  way  to  go — 

To  Calais,  Powhatan, 

Kind  greetings  you'll  receive. 
When  there,  you'll  find  my  picture  true— 

A  great  reaUty — 
Eut  there  my  friend  w^ill  welcome  you 

To  hospitality 

As  free  as  man  can  give. 

ISTow,  tho'  he's  queer,  himself  concedes. 

In  many  things,  his  life 
Is  full  of  kind  and  gen'rous  deeds 

That  mark  the  man,  and  give 
To  him  peculiar  praise. 
'Twere  well  if  all  were  odd  as  he 

In  some  respects,  for  then 
The  reign  of  selfishness  would  be 

ISTo  longer  borne,  if  men 
■  In  that  pursued  his  ways. 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  HI 


I  h  f^ci&Bal 


DEDICATED    TO 

MY  FRIEND   AND    HOST,   W.    II.    WESSON, 

BY  J.   M.   CONRAD. 


On  March  the  twenty-sixth,  and  year 
Of  eighteen  hundred  and  eighty-one, 

I  left  my  cozy  ofiice  where, 

As  plann'd,  I  met  my  friend  AYesson. 

The  purpose  was,  as  l:)y  our  plan, 
A  trip  along  the  upper  James, 

Then  o'er  that  stream  to  Powhatan — 
A  trip  now  full  of  pleasant  dreams. 

No  longer  drag'd  through  muddy  stream, 
By  tugging  mules,  at  sluggish  pace. 

We  mount  the  rail — then  borne  by  steam, 
More  briskly  to  our  dcstin'd  place. 

We  talk;  we  smoke  ;  we  hardly  note 
The  distance  or  the  time,  when  lo  ! 

Lee's  Landing  reached,  we  hail  the  boat, 
And  o'er  the  James  we  safely  go. 

A  horse  and  buggy  ready  stand 
To  bear  us  on  our  further  way ; 

My  host  (to  be)  assumes  command, 
And  vows  to  beat  decliniuix  dav. 


112 


The  horse  was  small,  the  buggy  stifl'; 

The  road  was  rough,  and  often  steep ; 
So  pony  mov'd  along  as  if 

He  were  far  ruore  than  half  asleep. 

The  w^hip  he  plied,  with  slackened  rein. 
He  urged  by  word  to  greater  speed ; 

But  no  response  could  he  obtain 

Save  loldskinj  tally  from  sluggish  beast. 

The  sun  was  gaining  in  the  race  ; 

The  wind  was  howling  o'er  the  plain. 
And  dashing  rudely  in  my  face; 

Yet,  all  his  urging  was  in  vain. 

And  so  we  jog'd,  andjog'd  along, 
Half  frozen  by  the  chilly  blast. 

Which  still  kept  up  its  dismal  song, 
Until  we  reached  a  Jtoase,  at  last ! 

A  house,  where  woman's  w'elconie  words 
And  kindly  greetings  drove  the  chill 

Away,  and  touch'd  the  tender  chords 
Of  gratitude  with  grateful  thrill. 

Then,  warm'd  by  gentle  force  like  this, 
AYhich  cannot  fail  to  touch  the  heart 

Of  those  who  feel,  as  should,  what  is 
The  charms  of  life.     Again  we  start 

Through  gloomy  woods  and  chilly  air, 
Beshrouded  in  the  mists  of  night, 

We  wend  our  way,  by  paths  not  far, 
Until  our  goal  appears  in  sight. 

No  light  is  seen  to  cheer  the  gloom, 
That  hovers,  like  a  fatal  spell, 

Above,  around,  this  lonely  home. 

Where  banished  woman  does  not  dwell 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  113 

Xo  i^reetings,  such  as  just  have  ])Ocn 

i3estow'd — the  cliarin  of  yonder  home — 

Xo  cheerful  voice  to  welcome  in 
The  weary  travelers  who  come. 

The  only  friends  who  come  to  meet 
Their  master  and  his  stranger  guest, 

Six  worthless  curs  dance  round  his  feet, 
And  mutely  say  icc  love  you  hest. 

(How  strange  that  man  should  turn  away 
From  his  own  kind,  and  seek  of  brutes 

Their  love,  because  they  own  his  sway, 
And  cringe  and  fawn  about  his  boots.) 

Adown,  across  the  lawn  we  go. 

Without  one  ray  of  light  to  guide 
My  untaught  feet,  or  dimly  show 

What  dangers  lie  on  either  side. 

At  last,  the  threshold  safely  reach'd. 

Swings  wide  the  hospitable  door. 
And  host  and  guest  are  safely  thatch'd, 

And  fear  the  howling  wind  no  more. 

Invited  by  the  cracking  flame. 

We  gather  close  around  the  heartli, 

And  think  to  calm  the  quiv'ring  frame, 
While  basking  in  its  gen'rous  warmth. 

No  time  is  lost  in  idle  care. 

For  now  the  host  has  spread  his  board 
With  viands  rich,  as  well  as  rare. 

And  nature  seeks  to  be  restor'd. 

We  sup — then,  turning  to  the  hearth, 
We  sip — we  smoke,  and  talk  and  talk 

Of  all  the  living  things  of  earth, 
That  fly,  or  swim,  or  crawl,  or  walk 


114 


We  talk  and  talk,  and  talk  awaj, 

Till  tongue  grow  sore  and  voices  hoarse,  \ 
Forgetful  of  the  coming  day. 

Swiftly  rolling  on  its  course. 

i 

How  long  we  talk'd,  I  cannot  tell ;  J 

I  languid  grew,  and  sat  in  fear,  j 

While  words  in  steady  torrents  fell  ] 

Upon  my  weary,  burdened  ear.  ] 

I  cry,  "  a  truce  !  one  moment's  rest !  ; 

I  pray,  my  host,  desist !  forbear  !  i 

Oh  !  save  thy  sinking,  dying  guest !  | 

Oh  !  heed  my  last,  most  earnest,  prayer  !'*  j 

My  host  beheld  my  feeble  state,  : 

And  for  a  moment  held  his  breath,  ; 

Which  saved  me  from  the  horrid  fate 

Of  beins:  talked  to  death.                                ~  ] 

I 

Compassion  mov'ed  him  to  desist. 

And,  list'ning  to  my  feeble  prayer,  i 

He  led  me  to  my  place  of  rest,  , 

Where  sleep  rehev'd  my  tortured  ear.  \ 

How  long  I  slept,  I  cannot  say,  ] 

But  e'er  the  morn  had  faintly  come. 

The  old  cock  crow'd  the  coming  day,  j 

Perch'd  in  the  porch,  his  wonted  home.  ; 

The  sable  curtains  of  the  night  : 

Are  drawn  aside,  and  day  is  here,  i 

With  all  its  glorious  beams  of  light,  i 

While  from  my  sleepless  couch  I  stir.  i 

My  toilet  made,  I  seek  my  host,  : 

Who,  mindful  of  his  sleeping  guest,  \ 

Had  fried  his  tripe  and  brown'd  his  toast,  '; 

And  rob'd  his  larder  of  its  best.  ' 


''CALAIS-MORALE."  H^. 

The  board  was  spread,  and  down  we  sat, 

(A  mongrel  trio  now  we  make — 
My  host,  his  guest,  and  Tommy  Cat,) 

And  of  the  gen'rons  meal  partake. 

The  meal  despatched,  we  smoke  and  talk, 

Discussing  all  we  ever  knew  ; 
Then  we  agree  to  take  a  walk, 

And  James'  lovely  landscape  view. 

Returnino^  to  our  former  base, 

We  talk  and  smoke — we  smoke  and  talk^ 
In  contest,  who  should  win  the  race, 

Till  itco  is  pointed  by  the  clock. 

My  host,  well  armed  with  whip  and  rein, 
Now  seeks  the  home  of  Mrs.  Jervey, 

Talking  in  continuous  strain. 

And  quoting  off  the  words  of  "  Hervey."" 

At  length,  her  hospitable  home 

Is  reach'd,  and  kindly  words  extend 

A  welcome  to  the  guests  who  come, 
A  pleasant,  social  hour  to  spend. 

We  dine,  most  hospitably  served  ; 

Then  thank,  and  parting  words  are  heard, 
And  oft*  we  drive,  well  warmed  and  nerved, 

To  breast  the  storm  of  wind  and  word. 

The  "  new  grounds  "  first,  and  here  w^e  tie  ; 

Then,  tramp,  tramp,  tramp  o'er  hill  and  dale. 
Through  lofty  pines,  to  boulders  high, 

And  onward  to  the  "  cool  spring""  vale. 

Now  all  is  sun,  and  back  we  go 

Toward  the  mansion  of  my  host  ; 
Yet  talking  all  we  think  or  know. 

Of  solid  truth,  or  idle  boast. 


116 


Arrived  at  Calais,  tea  we  take, 

And  then  the  fragrant  smoke  ascends, 

From  corn-cob  pipes,  of  rustic  make — 
Good  pipes  of  peace — we'r  silent  friends. 

But  oh  !  not  long  this  peace  prevails; 

The  solemn  silence  soon  is  broke. 
And  ever\'  feeble  effort  fails 

To  check  the  flow  of  words  he  spoke. 

And  when  talk  failed,  still  fresh  and  strong, 

A  history  of  his  life  he  read; 
Five  hundred  pages,  close  and  long, 

Ere  host  and  guest  prepared  for  bed. 

Mid  troubled  dreams,  the  night  has  passed, 
I  rise  to  bless  the  morn  again — 

My  visit  ends — I  break  my  fast. 
And  bid  adieu  to  Powhatan. 

Kow,  Jehu-like,  my  host  assumes 

The  w^hip  and  rein,  with  promise  then 

To  beat  the  train,  which  duly  comes 
Precisely  at  nine  hours  ten. 

In  anxious  haste  we  reach  the  James, 
But  find  no  Charon  at  his  post ; 

We  hail !  we  scream!  each  moment  seems 
As  if  it  were  an  hour  lost. 

At  length,  the  ferryman  appears. 

And  quick  we  reach  the  thither  shore  ; 

With  speed,  responding  to  our  fears, 

We  forward  bound — three  minutes  more! 

With  wearied  limbs  and  trembling  joints. 
At  last  we  reach  the  railroad  line  ; 

We  note  the  time — the  dial  points 
Its  faithful  hand— ruine  minutes  nine  ! 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  11? 

In  Imste  we  part — my  host  to  go 
To  meet  his  loving  canine  friends — 

The  only  living  things,  I  know. 
On  which  his  happiness  depends. 

Ilis  guest  is  rolling  onward,  too, 

Toward  his  home,  where  those  who  love 

(Of  his  own  liesh)  stand  to  renew 

That  pledge,  and  their  affections  prove. 

Now  host  and  guest  at  home  we  leave, 

■  And  think  it  well  our  story  stop  ; 
On  scenes  and  greetings  they  receive 

We  kindly  let  the  curtain  drop. 


BEFLECTIONS. 

The  ties  of  friendship  are  the  strongest  ! 
.  'Twixt  opposites,  we  often  find  ; 
And  so,  the  ties  which  last  the  longest 

Are  oft  'twixt  those  of  sim'lar  minds.  . 

I  feel  I'm  odd — on  one  extreme;  ] 

I  tliink  my  friend  is  odd  at  t'other  ;  | 

It  cannot,  therefore,  oddly  seem  i 

That  he  sliould  be  my  '*  friend  and  brother."  , 

And  then,  he  was  a  *'  poet  born  ;  "  k 

In  that  w^e'r  of  the  same  estate ;  ^ 

But,  should  my  laurels  e'er  be  shorn  | 

By  him,  my  love  may  turn  to  hate.  ] 


Friend  Wesson  : 

Hoping  to  amuse  you  in  your  solitary  hours,  I  have 
penned  this  hirjld)/  chaste  and  elegant  porm,  and  dedicated 
it  to  you.     Accept  it  as  a  tribute  from 
Your  friend, 

J.  M.  CONRAD. 


118  "  CALAIS-MORALE.-' 

J.  M.  Conrad,  deceased,  was  one  of  the  best  men  I 
>3ver  met.  Ten  years  since,  I  first  met  him,  at  the  horse- 
xoarket  in  Kichmond,  Va.,  after  the  war  and  its  mercan- 
tile ruin. 

The  Colonel  had  experimented  farming  three  or  four 
years,  and  lost  money,  and,  as  a  business  man,  cut  short 
his  losses  by  seUing  out  his  stock  and  re-conmiencing 
his  old  business  in  Richmond. 

Our  acquaintance,  at  first  sight,  was  immediate,  and 
never  needed  any  ''  bush."     I  bought  some  of  his  mules, 
a  cart,  and  all  of  his  farming  implements,  in  Manches- 
ter, whilst,  reall}',  I  had  no  present  need  for  any  of 
'these  things. 

The  Colonel  had  promised,  for  a  year,  to  visit  me  on 
a  Saturday  and  remain  till  the  following  Monday.  My 
visits  to  Richmond,  to  accompany  him  to  my  house,  were 
not  frequent,  and  the  weather  unfavorable  to  the  day 
of  his  visit. 

Whilst  my  guest,  he  requested  me,  at  some  leisure 
time,  to  write  his  epitaph,  and  remarked  that  his  visit  to 
me  was  the  only  visit  he  had  paid  any  one  in  the  past 
ten  years.  In  replying  to  his  poetry,  I  wrote  his 
epitaph,  and  read  the  piece  to  him  in  his  oflice  in  Rich- 
mond. He  was  moved  to  tears,  at  the  last  lines  of  my 
rhyming,  from  the  gay  to  the  melancholy.  The  epitaph 
reads  thus: 

"  Here  lies  J.  M.  Conrad, 
An  honest  man,  don't  cry  ; 
Most  men  forget 
They  have  to  die." 

He  died  on  the  21st  of  August  following,  and  is 
buried  in  Hollywood  Cemetery,  Richmond,  Ya. 


119 

The  hilt,  the  crepe,  tlie  coats,  the  trousers,  and  the 
vest,  ill  which  I  stood  helbre  the  Emperor,  the  Pope  of 
Eome  and  Cardinal  Antonelli,  in  18C7  and  1868,  are 
the  same  in  which  I  wrote  the  manuscript  for  "  CaLais- 
Morale,"  wear  da^ily  and  to  church,  in  Richmond,  at 
this  day,  1882  ;  wore  when  the  photographs  were  taken 
in  Paris,  in  180 7,  and  are  the  same  which  are  in  the  two 
editions  of  the  book. 

These  things,  made  of  the  best  materials,  wear  like 
buckskin.  My  hat  was  purchased  in  Liverpool,  for  a 
guinea;  the  crepe  put  on,  in  Paris,  by  the  Concierge 
Marie,  for  two  dollars.  Some  of  my  clothing  was  made 
in  Liverpool,  by  a  tailor,  to  whose  establishment  C.  M. 
F.  and  C.  J.  L.  accompanied  me.  Bishop  Lee  had  a 
suit  made  by  this  tailor.  I  am  not  sure  that  the  Bishop 
can  now  show  such  well-worn,  thread-bare  garments, 
his  nicer  calling  prohibiting  such  a  thing.  My  suspen- 
ders are  the  best  I  ever  saw. 


120 


Like  Master  Like  Man. 


^f^  HOUGH  I  never  ordered  mj  servants  not  to  drink 
%SSS  whiskey,  yet  I  never  saw  or  heard  of  their  drink- 
ing any,  nor  did  I  ever  see  one  of  them  with  a  jug  or 
bottle.  During  the  war  they  had  entire  control  of  the 
house  and  farm.  Crops  were  as  regularly  made  and 
cared  for  as  before,  and  neither  robbery  or  theft,  which 
were  so  common,  occurred  on  my  place. 

I  gave  my  man,  Jack  Seward,  my  double-barreled 
gun,  and  told  him  to  care  for  his  mistress  and  the 
children,  as  well  as  the  farm,  at  Summit,  N.  C,  near 
the  railroad  depot,  and  the  most  exposed  and  public 
place  of  the  county  at  the  close  of  the  w^ar,  with  many 
negro  troops  passing ;  and,  while  two  stores  in  sight 
were  robbed  in  the  day-time,  and  their  owners  abused 
and  driven  off,  not  a  thing  of  mine  was  ever  touched^ 
in  the  midst  of  these  depredations. 

My  negroes  w^ere  loathe  to  be  free.  I  divided  the  crop 
of  1865  with  them,  took  many  of  their  kindred  on 
this  farm,  built  new  homes  for  them,  and,  for  years 
after  the  war,  they  were  better  slaves  and  servants  than 
before.  All  were  independent,  some  rich,  for  negroes, 
and  are  to  this  day.  They  attended  no  carpet-bagger's 
or  their  meetings,  and  sixteen  attended  me  to  the  depot 
when  I  left  the  county,  in  1870,  begging  me  to  come 
to  see  them  as  often  as  I  could  get  time  to  do  so. 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  ^  21 


Bachman  and  Caldwell, 


gSK  Jolui  Bachman,  for  fii'ty-five  years)  Tastor  ot 
ei  the  Lutheran  Church,  Charleston,  S.  C,  ^v-as  as 
much  a  man,  to  my  liking,  as  any  man  I  was  ever  ac- 
quainted with. 

He  was  not  "  over-righteous,"  but  as  I  have  often 
heard  him  called,  "  Savan  of  the  South,"  he  miglit 
have  been  "  over-wise." 

He  was  fond  of  Backgammon,  and  relished  a  good 
ioke  His  residence,  was  on  Rutledge  street,  rather  out 
of  reach  of  the  bombshells,  during  the  bombardment  ot 
Charleston. 

He  had    little  Florida  doves  in  his  front  yard,  that 
nestled  in  the  shrubbery.     In  the  rear  yard,  his  henery 
and  his  genuine  Newfoundland  dog,  Beauregard  ;  then 
his  warden  of  strawberries  and  forty  varieties  ot  roses. 
The'interior  of  his  house,  was  the  prototype  of  the  fam- 
ily that  dwelled  in  it.     At  the  foot  of  the  stairs  was  the 
life-size  picture  of  a  turkey, painted  by  "Audubon,"  the 
Ornithologist,  two  of  whose  sons  married  two  ot   the 
Doctor's  daughters.     They  lived   in  London,  England, 
and  learned  to  play  Russian  backgammon,  of  the  Rus- 
sian ministers.     The  Doctor  learned  of  them,  and  taught 
this  crarae  to  the  writer.     I  could  beat  him  easdy  at  the 
common  game    of   backgammon  ;  but  the  Doctor,  by 
his  luck,  would  beat  me  at  the  "Russ."     During  the 
bombardment,  he   visited   my   connections,  in   Sumter 


122  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

county,  preached  on  Sunday,  and  fished  on  Monday.  I 
was  a  guest  at  the  place,  the  same  time,  and  the  Doctor 
told  a  rare  fish  story,  that  had  come  within  his  observa- 
tion, near  Charleston,  many  years  before.  A  friend  of 
his,  on  the  Cooper  river,  had  a  famous  place  to  catch  the 
fish  called  Sheepshead.  This  friend  invited  the  Doctor 
to  come  up,  on  the  first  day  when  he  could  leave  his  pas- 
toral duties,  and  enjoy  his  past-time  fishing.  He  told 
him  to  be  sure  to  bring,  when  he  came,  a  good  supply  of 
hooks.  His  leisure  day  came,  he  rode  to  his  friends,  who 
asked  him  for  the  hooks;  he  had  forgotten  them.  They 
hunted  up  two  hooks,  and  he  had  scarcely  gotten  his 
hook  fixed  in  the  water,  before  a  Sheepshead  took  it, 
and  broke  it  before  he  got  it  out  of  the  water.  His 
friend  wished  him  to  use  his  hook,  but  the  Doctor  said 
he  would  go  to  the  house,  near  by,  and  hunt  up  a  knit- 
ting needle,  and  make  a  hook,  and  left  his  friend  fishing. 
When  he  returned,  his  friend  had  not  even  had  a  bite, 
so  the  Doctor  baited,  and  put  his  hook  in  the  water,  and 
before  it  touched  the  bottom,  a  large  Sheepshead  seized 
it,  and  he  pulled  it  out  of  the  water,  but  his  hook  let 
slip,  and  he  caught  the  fish  with  his  hand,  before  it 
touched  the  water,  and  cast  it  ashore.  This  fish  had  a 
good  hook  in  its  mouth,  and  the  Doctor  tied  this  hook  in 
the  place  of  the  home-made  one,  and  caught  twelve 
other  Sheepshead,  as  fast  as  he  could  put  his  hook  in  the 
water,  and  his  friend  never  got  a  bite. 

I  told  the  Doctor,  that  was  a  fair  sample  of  fisherman's 
luck,  that  I  was  not  fond  of  fishing,  but  would  go  with 
him  and  his  party  next  day,  to  the  well-baited  place, 
where  he  intended  to  fish,  and  see  his  luck. 

But,  I  had  to  go  to  Camden,  but  hoped  to  return  in 
time  to  ride  to  the  river  and  see  their  luck,  as  they  had 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  128 

-carried  provisions  to  have  u  fisli  dinner,  and  to  remain 
all  day. 

I  returned,  and  rode  to  the  river,  after  3  r.  M.  They 
had  not  dined,  and  the  four  fishermen,  seated  in  chairs, 
were  angling  as  demnrcly  as  if  they  expected  a  fish  for 
the  Doctor's  dinner.  Xot  a  fish  had  they  caught  since 
their  morning's  arrival. 

I  told  the  Doctor  his  fishing  luck  had  run  out  on  the 
Sheepshead. 

lie  acknowledo-ed  himself  hunsfrv,  so  the  servant 
cooked  the  bacon  that  had  been  brouffht  to  cook  the  fish 
with.  They  ate,  and  the  l^octor  said,  <'  now  I  will  sling 
them." 

I  protested  that  he  would  not  catch  a  fish. 

They  fished  without  success  for  about  another  hour, 
and  then  one  of  the  fishermen  said,  he  would  have  some 
fish,  and  rode  up  the  river  to  a  fishery  of  seines. 

One  of  the  fishermen  said,  **' Doctor,  go  to  our  side  of 
the  river,  to  a  mill-pond,  where  I  have  a  boat ;  I  have 
never  gone  home  without  a  mess  of  fish." 

So  they  hied  to  this  pond,  and  I  rode  with  them,  and 
went  into  the  boat  too,  protesting  the  Doctor  would  not 
get  a  fish.  They  fished  until  I  got  tired,  and  did  not  get 
a  bite ;  so  I  said  if  they  would  put  me  ashore,  I  would 
carry  my  borrowed  horse  home,  and  meet  them  fishless 
at  night.  / 

The  boat  was  steered  and  paddled  for  the  shore.  I 
-said,  "  Doctor  ?  loan  me  your  fishing  rod  !  I  will  show 
jou  fishing  is  luck,  and  I  will  catch  more  fish,  before  we 
touch  the  shore,  than  four  fishermen  have  caught  in  a 
<]ay,  from  your  bad  luck ;  for,  they  say,  this  is  their  first 


124 

failure,  and  they  have  been  fishing  here  since  they  wero 
boys." 

My  hook  had  scarcely  settled  in  the  disturbed  waters 
when  a  large  silver  perch  seized  it,  and  I  pulled  it  in 
the  boat,  and,  handing  back  the  rod  to  the  Doctor,  I 
said:  "That  is  what  I  call  *luck.'  It  throws  your 
sheeps-head  fish  story  in  the  shade.  I  must  tell  you,. 
Doctor,  the  best  kind  of  hooks  I  ever  tried  for  fish  is 
the  same  that  cousin  Tom  had  when  he  left  us  at  the- 
river,  and  this  silver  perch  reminds  me  of  it,  too — it  is- 
a  silver  hooky 

The  Doctor  rubbed  his  head  and  said  :  "  This  will  do 
for  your  fish  story." 

On  April  29th,  1864,  I  received  the  following  note 
from  him,  in  Charleston,  S.  C.  : 

Charlestox,  S.  C,  Sept.  29,  1864. 
W.  H.  Wesson  : 

My  Dear  Sir — I  sympathize  with  you  in  your  disap- 
pointment and  mortification.  You  are  evidently  no 
match  for  the  giants  of  the  "  Russ."  So  be  humbled 
into  submission.  If  I  had  more  time,  I  would  teacli 
you.  Evidently,  you  are  less  an  expert  with  the  dice- 
box  than  with  the  fishing  line. 

JOHI^  BACHMAN. 


Charleston,  April  2,  1864. 

Dear  Doctor — I  send  you  a  book — can  almost  say  the 
book..  It  was  mentioned  in  our  last  conversation.  I 
will  call  for  it  any  morning  you  may  designate  and 
play  three  games  of  old  Eussian  backgammon,  two  out^ 
of  the  three  to  be  mine. 


"CALAIS-MORALE."  125 

I  have  a  letter  this  morning  from  the  President  and 
'Secretary  of  War,  and,  with  your  autograph,  my  col- 
lection is  more  complete. 

Yours  truly, 

W.  II.  WESSON. 


Charleston,  April  28,  18G4 
'W.  H.  Wesson,  Esq.  : 

3Ii/  Dear  Sir — I  received  the  book,  and,  as  I  am  indis- 
posed a  little,  I  will  amuse  and,  I  hope,  inform  myself 
«by  looking  over  it   this  morning. 

I  am  at  home  all  day,  and  would  be  willing  to  let 
jou  take  your  revenge  for  your  last  drubbing.  I  am 
also  at  home  to-morrow  morning.  I  will  deal 
kindly  with  you,  and,  occasionally,  will  let  you  con- 
*quer  me. 

Yours  truly, 

JOIIX  BACHMAN. 


Charleston,  April  29,  1864.  ) 
Friday — 5  a.  m.      > 
Dr.  Bachman: 

Dear  Doctor — If  yon  did  beat  me  at  the  old  Russian 
backgammon,  I  have  beaten  you  at  catching  rats. 
Your  success  in  that  line  I  have  seen  more  than  once. 
I  determined  last  night  to  beat  you  in  that  game,  and  I 
set  the  loater  bowl  for  a  little  mouse  that  annoyed  me 
by  his  gnawing. 

The  mouse  got  on  the  edge  of  the  bowl  to  drink  and 
slipped  in !  I  put  but  little  loater  in  it  to  punish  this 
.mouse,  and  his  attempts  to  scramble  up  the  slick  sides, 


126  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

and  his  frequent  failures,  almost  enlisted  my  sympathy ; 
but,  being  inclined  to  sleep,  I  dreamed  him  asleep. 

Alas  !  poor  mouse  !  When  I  awoke,  I  found  him 
with  his  head  down  and  his  tall  up.     Many  a  two-legged 

eature  has  lost  his  life  by  drinkinsc  too  much  and  too 


or 


ir> 


often  of  a  less  tasty  beverage. 

Xow,  the  cheapness  of  my  rat-trap,  aided  by  the 
slight  beating  I  gave  your  friend.  Doctor  Aldrick,  at 
backgammon,  alleviated,  in  some  degree,  the  chagrin 
W'ith  which  your  luck  miiicted  me.  When  you  wTite 
my  name  again,  think  of  Lesson. 

Yours  truly, 

W.  H.  WESSON. 


Charleston,  S.  C,  April  30, 1864. 
W.  H.  Wesson,  Esq.  : 

My  Dear  Sir — If  I  could  do  anything  to  comfort  you 
in  your  downfall,  I  would  do  it.  I  send  you  a  few 
roses,  which  you  may  present  to  your  favorite  ladies. 

I  hope  you  did  not  give  the  old  Saxon  name  to  your 
newly-invented  "  rat  trap."  I  caught  the  foot  of  a  big 
rat  last  night.  Pray,  can  you  tell  the  points  of  differ- 
ence that  separate  the  rat  from  the  mouse  ? 

I  am  at  home  all  day,  if  you  want  any  more  cur- 
rying. 

Yours  truly, 

JOHN  BACHiMAN. 


Summerville,  S.  C,  May  1,  1864. 
Dr.  John  Bachman  : 

Bear  Doctor — In  your  note  of  April  30th,  you  ask  me 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  1  27 

to  tell  the  "  the  points  of  diHoreiice  that  separate  the  rat 
from  the  mouse." 

As  I  have  one  of  my  Fillies  du  Regiment  to  write 
my  note  to  you,  while  I  dictate  it,  and,  as  she  is  a 
remarkahle  songstress.  Miss  S.  oS".,  I  may  rhyme  a  part 
of  it,  which  you  can  oall  "  niiterndiy  We  have 
heen  gaming  the  past  week.  This,  Sunday  morning, 
5  o'olock. 

My  toilet  made,  my  Bible  rtad, 
(Fruit  of  early  bed),  perhaps  enough  said  ; 

The  sins  of  this  week  could  I  bury ; 

Pick  and  cull  them  when  in* no  hurry  ; 

And,  from  my  batch  of  letters,  pick 

Three  little  notes  from  the  "  Old  Nick," 

The  old  fellow  who,  outside  of  law, 

Did  thrash  and  curry  me, 

'Twas  "  luck,"  not  his  paw, 

Even  his  notes  did  carry  the  smell 

Of  sulphur  from  the  bottomless  well. 

My  revenge  even  must  worry  these  notes, 

I  turned  them  as  we  sometimes  do  coats ; 

The  first  one,  no  date,  I  pitched  out  of  time, 

The  second,  ''  son  "  was  "  sin," 

AVherein  my  rhyme ; 

The  third,  the  last,  and  very  late. 

Erred  in  spelling  the  word  sep[e]arate. 

Well,  speaking  of  rats,  I  love  Tabby  Cats, 

Althou2:h  their  choice  food  mav  be  vile, 

^lice  or  rats,  they  are  not  so  choice. 

Unless  it  be  a  rat-tail  file. 

Spelling  Wesson,  Igave  you  a  lesson, 

Another,  whenever  I  can. 

It  shall  not  be  ''  gavimon,''  but  backgammon, 

That  will  gammon  John  Bachman. 

Yours  truly, 

W.  11.  WESSON. 


128  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

P.  S. — You  see,  I  have  the  ladies  to  help  me  write 
and  teach  me  gammon.  One  more  turn,  and  you  will 
shuiSe  off  a  lame  nag.  The  flowers  were  very  accepta- 
ble, and  changed  hands  three  times  before  the  bride 
got  her  portion  ;  but,  as  she  is  second-hand,  it  don't 
matter  much. 

AY.  H.  ^y. 

Charleston,  S.  C,  June  3,  1864. 
3I(/  Dear  Sir — I  am  home  to-morrow  at  9  o'clock, 
and  will  be  glad  to  see  you.     The  flowers  are  very  beau- 
tiful. 

Truly,  your  friend, 

joh:n"  bachman. 


Charleston,  June  6,  1864.  ) 
Sunday— 12:30  a.  m.      I 
Dr.  John  Bachman: 

Dear  Doctor — Can  I  employ  my  time  better  between 
churches  than  to  copy  a  part  of  a  letter  enclosed  to  I. 
Caldwell,  a  professed  infidel  ?  The  four  impromptu 
lines  I  add  to  fill  up  my  paper.  The  "  tribulum  "  is  a 
most  necessary  and  useful  instrument.  The  writer  felt 
it  and  handled  it  so  often — when  he  is  not  being 
"  flailed" — he  has  a  penchant  to  flail  others. 

Wishing  you  a  reasonable  riddance  of  its  flagilations, 
I  remain,  as  ever, 

Your  kind  rememberer, 

WxM.  II.  WESSON. 

This  was  sent  to  an  infidel, 
Old,  but  hobbling  his  way  to  hell ; 
Prose  having  failed,  verse  may  reach 
Him  who  refused  to  hear  men  preach. 

W.  H.  W. 


*'  CALAIS-MORALE."  129 

On  the  21st  March,  1SG2,  I  had  gotten  up  a  subscrip- 
tion for  the  relief  of  dehxyed  and  passing  soldiers,  at  the 
horrible  place,  Kingsville,  South  Carolina. 

I  wrote  on  the  cars  a  parody  on  this  place,  which  they 
would  have  published  in  a  small  pamphlet.  I  went  to 
see  Mr.  J.  Caldwell,  the  President  of  the  llailroad,  and 
Iar2:e8t  owner.  I  had  never  seen  him,  but  was  told  bv 
several  persons,  that  he  would  not  grant  the  privilege 
for  my  first  snack-table,  which  I  doubted.  I  met  him  at 
Branchville,  and  showed  my  paper  and  project.  He 
promptly  objected.  I  answered,  I  will  have  you  ex- 
President  of  this  Railroad  in  six  months.     It  was  so. 

On  May  9th,  1864,  when  the  Confederate  Treasury 
and  money  manufactures  were  forced  to  be  moved  from 
Kichmond,  Ya.,  to  Columbia,  S.  C,  there  were  many 
young  ladies  of  high  respectability  in  the  writing  de- 
partments, and  it  was  very  difficult  for  them  to  get 
places  to  board  at.  I  wrote  to  Mr.  Caldwell  to  take 
some  of  them,  and  help  me  to  get  places  for  others,  and 
to  send  some  buds  of  the  shrubs,  flowers,  and  magnolia- 
fuscata.  I  heard  he  had  the  one  of  the  two  shrubs  of  this 
rare  plant  in  South  Carohna. 

Mr.  Caldwell  sent  me  the  following  answer  : 

Columbia,  S.  C,  May  4th,  1864. 
W.  II.  Wesson,  Esq.,  Summerville,  S.  C : 

Dear  Sir. — Your  note  is  duly  received.  It  will  aftbrd 
me  pleasure  to  assist  your  friends,  if  in  my  power,  in 
the  way  you  propose.  I  send  the  buds,  as  requested.  I 
hope  your  friends  will  appreciate  them. 

Yours  truly, 

JOHN  CALDWELL, 


130 

Mr.  Caldwell  was  a  cousia  of  J.  C.  Calhoun,  and  de- 
cidedly and  openly  against  the  war,  though  his  sons 
were  in  the  Army.  I  liked  him  for  his  honesty  in  the 
thing.  We  had  a  nice  pleasant  talk  over  it,  on  the  cars^ 
after  the  war,  in  the  presence  of  several  Federal  otiicers. 
Mr.  Caldwell  was  not  a  dangerous  opponent.  It  was 
those  who  professed  one  way,  and  acted  the  other,  who 
were  the  worst  enemies  the  Confederates  had. 


Charleston,  S.  C,  Jan.  18th,  1866.  > 
Monday — 5  a.  m.      I 

Doctor  Bachman  : — I  know  you  will  excuse  my  time  of 
writing  and  paper.  I  have  slept  eight  hours ;  enough 
for  a  beast.  I  am  called  eccentric,  because  I  write  all 
of  my  letters  before  day-light.     You  got  into  my  mind 

by  accident,  on  Tuesday,  by  a  request  of  Mayor  W ^ 

and  my  cousin. 

I  have  but  little  money,  though  the  world  speak  the 
contrary ;  as  so  few  persons  have  any  money. 

1  have  to  give  the  soldiers,  widows,  and  orphans,  one 
thousand  dollars,  and  wish  you  to  be  almoner  for  half  of 
it,  and  three  other  preachers  here,  shall  attend  to  the 
balance.  Great  alms-giving  lessons  no  man's  living. 
Honor  without  profit,  is  a  ring  on  the  finger.  You  have 
the  '^Greeks"  at  your  door,  and  the  poorest  of  the  poor. 

Yours  truly, 

AV.  H.  WESSO:^'. 


Thursday,  Jan.  27,  1866. 
Mr.  Wesson: 

Mu  Good  Friend — You  overwhelm  me  with  kindness. 


131 

and  everything  else.     I  will  attend  to  the  ladies.     When 
are  ^'ou  coming  up  to  take  tea  and  a  threshing  ? 

Truly,  your  friend, 

JOHN  BACHMAN. 


Friday,  Jan.  28,  18(J6. 
Mr.  Wesson: 

Mj  Good  Friend — I  will  look  for  you  and  your  friend. 
You  had  better  put  a  sheep-skin  under  your  shirt.    Come 
and  lose  or  win  ;  you  will  he  welcome. 
Your  friend, 

JOHX  J3AC1IMAX. 


This  is  the  last  letter,  1871,  to  me  at  my  home. 

Chaelestox,  S.  C,  June  2,  1871. 
"W.  11.  Wesson: 

Mj  Dear  Sir — As  I  fear  that  I  have  sometimes  been 
negligent  of  my  kind  correspondents,  I  will  endeavor 
to  be  punctual  this  time.  As  your  letter  treats  princi- 
pally of  Backgammon,  its  science,  &c.,  I  must  confess 
that  I  have  grow^n  rusty  in  that  department.  When  my 
angel  wife  w^as  living,  I  verily  believe  she  kept  her 
hand  in  with  the  game  on  my  account,  not  willing  to 
deprive  me  of  any  pleasure,  that  I  craved;  but  since  I 
have  lost  her,  I  have  ceased  to  relish,  what  I  once  en- 
joyed. I  have  not  played  a  game  for  many  years, 
and  the  bent  of  my  inclination  is  never  to  renew^  it.  I 
often  stood  in  need  of  something  to  amuse  me,  (he  had 
been  paralyzed).  Backgammon,  I  believe,  is  an  inno- 
cent game.     Perhaps  if  you  were  with  me,  I  might  al- 


132 

most  recall  what  I  have  forgotten.  Meanwhile,  it  is  a 
pleasure  to  me  to  hear  you  are  enjoying  yourself.  You 
are  better  off  than  myself,  for  my  sight  is  weak,  and  I 
am  dependent  on  others,  for  even  the  news  contained  in 
the  daily  papers  ;  yet,  surely,  I  should  not  murmur.  I 
have  had  my  days,  and  do  not  desire  the  enjoyments  of 
■earth  to  be  prolonged  ;  still,  I  wish  to  live  in  the  mem- 
ory of  my  friends,  and  in  the  heart  of  my  old  friend 

AVesson. 

Truly  your  friend, 

JOHN  BACHMAN. 


I  copied  from  the  fifth  chapter  Job,  the  19th  to  27th 
verses,  and  enclosed  to  him  without  comment,  just  be- 
fore he  died,  at  an  advanced  age. 

"  He  shall  deliver  thee  in  six  troubles ;  yea,  in  seven, 
there  shall  no  evil  touch  thee.  In  famine  he  shall  re- 
deem thee  from  death  ;  and  in  war,  from  the  power  of 
the  sword-  Thou  shalt  be  hid  from  the  scourge  of  the 
tongue;  neither  shall  man  be  afraid  of  destruction,  when 
it  cometh.  At  destruction  and  famine  thou  shalt  laugh  ; 
neither  shalt  thou  be  afraid  of  the  beasts  of  the  earth,  for 
thou  shalt  be  in  league  with  the  stones  of  the  field,  and 
the  beast  of  the  field  shall  be  in  peace  with  thee  ;  and 
thou  shalt  know  that  thy  Tabernacle  shall  be  in  peace, 
and  thou  shalt  visit  thy  habitation  and  not  sin.  Thou 
shalt  know  also  that  thy  seed  shall  be  great,  and  thy  off- 
spring as  the  grass  of  the  earth.  Thou  shalt  come  to 
thy  grave  in  a  full  age,  like  a  shock  of  corn  cometh  in 
full  season.  And  thus  we  have  searched  it.  So  it  is; 
hear  it  and  know  thou  it  for  thy  good." 


133 
LETTER  FROM  EX-PRESIDENT  TYLER. 


Having  gotten  amongst  some  republican  kings,  I  will 
give  two  more  copies  of  letters,  and  close  with  them. 
I  never  called  on  but  one  of  them,  at  the  Executive 
Mansion,  before  the  war,  and  then  accidentally,  in  the 
private  reception-room  of  President  Polk.  As  there 
were  no  seats  in  this  little  room,  I  stood  up  before  him 
and  Mr.  Dallas  and  w^^s  well  entertained  ;  more  so,  per- 
haps, than  if  my  visit  had  been  intentional. 

An  officer  in  Charleston,  S.  C,  would  give  to  me  the 
nicest  cane,  or  walking-stick,  I  ever  saw,  made  from  a 
palmetto  tree,  cut  down  near  Fort  Moultre.  As  I 
never  carried  arms,  even  canes,  I  concluded  to  send  it 
to  ex-President  Tyler,  then  in  the  Senate  at  Richmond, 
Va.,  and  I  got  the  following  letter  from  him.  I  only 
WTote  a  note  and  tied  it  to  the  cane  : 

Richmond,  Va.,  April  2,  1861. 
Mr.  Wesson: 

Dear  Sir — I  thank  you  very  truly  for  the  Palmetto 
cane  you  have  done  me  the  honor  to  present  to  me, 
and  which  was  kindly  delivered  last  evening,  by  Mr. 
Branch.  Be  assured,  my  dear  sir,  that  I  shall  preserve 
it  as  a  memorial  of  your  flattering  approval  of  my 
course  in  these  troublous  times,  and  also  in  remem- 
brance of  the  historic  events  which  occurred  near  the 
place  of  its  growth. 

Most  respectfully  and  truly  yours, 

JOUX  TYLER. 


134  ''  CALAIS-MORALE." 

I  had  some  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Tyler,  and  had 
spent  a  week  at  the  old  Sweet  Springs,  with  him  and 
his  then  beautiful  young  wife.  My  seat  was  next  to 
him,  and  his  servant  waited  on  me  too.  I  do  not  r>ow 
recollect  whether  he  was  then  acting  President,  or 
whether  his  term  had  just  expired. 


LETTER  FROM  PRES'T  JEFFERSON  DAVIS. 


I  wrote  to  President  Davis,  from  Charleston,  that, 
although  I  had  never  seen  him,  I  had  advised  him  to 
take  the  railroads  or  give  up  the  war,  and  to  allow  no 
one  to  travel  on  or  use  them,  except  the  military.  This 
w^as  done,  and  the  writer,  amongst  the  rest,  even  gen- 
erals^ ivives,  could  not  travel  on  them. 

Years  before,  I  had  written  to  him,  telling  him  that 
I  would  have  no  office  in  his  gift,  unless  it  was  a  "blind 
office,"  (a  joke),  which  would  permit  me  to  travel  on  the 
railroad  when  and  where  I  chose.  In  the  following 
letter  he  kindly  granted  my  request,  and  I  had  no  diffi- 
culty in  procuring  passports  and  going  where  I  pleased. 

The  following  is  a  copy  of  the  envelope: 

*' Confederate  States  America,^ 

•'  War  Department,  > 

"Official  Business.") 

W.  H.  AYESSOX, 

summervillb, 

South  Carolina. 

Richmond,  Ya.,  April  20,  1864. 


*'  CALAIS-MORALE."  135 

\y.  H.  Wesson  : 

Bear  Sir — The  President  lias  referred  your  letter  of 
the  11th  inst.  to  this  Department  for  reply.  You  are 
informed  that  persons  in  your  situation  have  no  diffi- 
culty in  obtaining  passports  from  the  local  officers  here, 
and  it  is  supposed  that  none  will  be  made  in  Charleston. 
Respectfully, 

JAMES  A.  SEDDOX. 

Scc'^jof  War, 


LETTER  FROM  EX-GOV.  IIEXRY   A.  WISE. 


Richmond,  Ya.,  March  6,  1861. 
W^H.  Wesson: 

Dear  Sir — I  thank  you  for  the  Palmetto  badge.  I 
wear  Yirginia's  still.  AVhen  she  consents  to  degrade 
me  to  a  slave,  I  will  snatch  this  badge  and  fix  it  over 
my  heart,  whilst  it  bleeds  to  implore  assistance  to  tear 
my  mother  State  from  pollution. 
Yours,  truly, 

HEXRY  A.  WISE. 


Governor  Wise  was  a  General  in  the  Confederate 
service,  and  told  me  himself  that  he  plead  long  and 
hard  to  prevent  the  hanging  of  John  Prown.  I  have 
spent  more  time  with,  and  oftener  visited  him,  than  any 
other  person  of  my  acquaintance.  I  spent  a  day  with 
him  not  Ions;  before  his  death.     I  have  met  few  such 


men. 


136  "  CALAIS-MORALE.' 


Dreams. 


MKNOW  that  *'a  dream  coiiieth  through  the  multitude' 
of  business,  and  a  fool's  voice  is  known  by  a  mul- 
titude of  words,"  and  that  there  are  divers  varieties  ic' 
both.  I  have  slept  well  and  dreamed  all  of  my  life ; 
and,  for  thirty  years,  in  carrying  out  the  most  important 
prescription  of  Dr.  Jackson,  to  palliate  an  incurable 
disease,  I  have  been  strictly  temperate  in  eating.  By 
prudent  eating,  the  frequent  use  of  cold  water,  and  out- 
door exercise  and  work,  I  have  not  only  subdued  and 
conquered  two  of  the  greatest  ills  of  human  life,  but  I 
have  nearly  fulfilled  the  doctor's  prophecy  by  living  out 
my  three-score  and  ten  years. 

I  have  not  had  a  bad  dream  for  thirty  years  or  spent 
a  wakeful  night,  let  my  troubles  be  ever  so  great.  I 
was  never  induced  to  write  but  two  of  my  dreams. 
These  made  a  strong  impression  on  my  mind,  and 
gave  the  turning  point  to  two  of  the  most  important 
acts  of  my  life. 

In  my  youth,  when  I  had  almost  persuaded  myself 
to  refuse  either  to  sell  or  to  have  anything  whatever  to 
do  with  whiskey,  but  to  banish  it  from  my  presence  and 
to  fight  against  its  use  for  the  balance  of  my  life,  though 
custom,  customers  and  money  were  against  my  youthful 
action,  I  had  a  remarkable  and  impressive  dream,  which 
not  only  absorbed  my  first  wakeful  thoughts,  but  cort- 
tinued  to  do  so  whilst  washing  and  dressing. 


"CALAIS-MORALE."  137 

I  dreamed  that  I  saw  an  immense  large  eagle  fly  over 
my  bead  and  alight. 

In  passing  out  of  my  door  I  saw  a  stray  leaf  of  a  book 
lying  on  the  floor.  I  never  kept  any  books  in  that 
room,  nor  had  I  ever  read  a  book  like  that  from  which 
this  leaf  seemed  to  have  been  torn.  It  was  from  a 
dream-book,  and  had  my  dream  on  it,  and  the  inter- 
pretation. It  simply  said  that  my  dream  foreshadowed 
perfect  success  in  all  future  undertakings.  This  thing 
gave  me  faith,  and  decided  me  at  once  how  I  should 
act  in  my  dilemma. 

There  is  one  point  in  which  this  belief  is  akin  even 
unto  Mahomet's  faith.  His  deeds  were  chiefly  done 
from  a  firm  conviction  that  God  had  ordained  him  to 
His  work. 

Never  wx:)uld  Cromwell  have  driven  his  foes  before 
him,  if  it  had  not  been  in  the  stern  strength  of  his 
almost  Omnipotent  determination  to  be  borne  along  by 
the  current  of  his  will,  contrary  to  all  the  wills  and-: 
wishes  of  the  world. 

My  next  dream  occurred  more  than  fifty  years  after 
the  first  dream,  which  for  years,  had  so  impressed 
me. 

I  dreamed  that  I  had  been  residing  and  sleeping  with 
friends  in  a  house,  in  which  our  beds  were  hewn  pieces 
of  oak  timbers,  slightly  inclined,  and  we  were  wonder- 
ing how  well  we  had  slept  and  enjoyed  these  hard  beds, 
when  I  heard  the  rumbling  noise  of  a  carriage  in  the 
forest  near  our  dwellinof. 

I  listened,  and  looked  out  of  the  window  until  it 
came  in  sight  and  passed  the  road  near  the  house.  In 
the  open  carriage   sat  an  old  acquaintance,  who  may  bc: 


138  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

dead,  as  far  as  I  know.  He  was  elegantly  dressed,  wdth 
a  shining  black  coat ;  bis  vest  and  neck-tie  were  the 
most  prominent  things  about  him,  white  as  6now\  He 
drove  an  elegant  white  horse. 

I  then  commenced  walking  the  road  by  which  he  had 
gone,  when  a  lady,  once  my  friend,  overtook  me.  She 
was  in  an  open  carriage,  driving  three  beautiful  white 
horses  abreast.  The  lady  stopped  her  carriage,  and 
asked  me  to  take  a  seat  with  her,  which  I  did.  I  then 
ceased  to  dream. 

At  this  time  I  had  written  one-half  of  the  manuscript 
for  my  book,  and  was  hesitating  about  writing  the  rest 
of  it,  as  I  had  no  money  to  publish  it ;  but,  as  its  chief 
moral  is  the  fight  against  whiskey,  and  although  it  was 
not  a  preacher  I  saw  in  my  dream,  yet,  his  snow-white 
neck-tie  w^as  emblematix:  of  one,  and  the  white  horses 
and  the  lady,  all  caused  me  to  recollect  that  nearly  all 
of  the  women  were  opposed  to  whiskey,  and  that 
their  influence  in  this  thing  would  be  almost  omnipo- 
tent. I  felt  that  they,  to  a  man,  approved  of  the  moral 
of  my  story,  and  would  help  its  circulation  for  the  good 
of  others,  as  well  as  of  themselves;  and,  as  even  a  small 
success  in  this  matter  would  be  the  crowning  effort  of 
my  life,  and  perhaps  the  last,  I  w-ill  finish  it.  Like 
Joseph,  I  interpret  dreams. 

If  the  book  results  in  good  to  others,  I  am  paid  for 
my  work,  and  though  I  am  almost  alone  in  the  world, 
and  may  sleep  on  the  hard  bed,  described  in  the  dream, 
and  undergo  labors,  privations,  and  discomforts,  unusual 
for  old  men ;  yet,  my  past  temperate  life  has  fitted  me  to 
endure  them  with  cheerfulness,  and  to  be  satisfied  with 
NW'hat  I  have. 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  139 

Walter  Scott,  after  his  publishers  failed,  and  ruined 
him  pecuniarily,  received  £100,000  for  his  writings,  and 
they  paid  after  his  death,  the  other  £50,000  of  his  debts. 
If  it  is  either  ambitious  or  covetous  in  me  to  hope  for 
only  a  few  hundred  dollars,  to  pay  my  security  debts, 
and  to  gratifiy  my  last  wish  and  desire  on  earth  ;  shake 
off  the  bug-bear  poverty,  which  has  fastened  so  many 
sins  on  mankind,  and  which  has  often,  unbidden,  thrust 
its  meagre  visage  on  my  mind,  and  seemed  to  say,  ''look 
only  for  self,  in  the  transaction,  and  if  you  receive  and 
take  this  little  advantage  of  your  neighbor,  now  in  your 
power,  it  is  only  to  keep  out  of  my  company."  I  allow 
that  there  are  degrees  and  grades  in  poverty,  as  in  other 
things,  and  if  we  are  to  be  poor,  that  the  first  wish 
should  be,  to  be  honestly  poor ;  the  next  to  be  unde- 
servedly poor.  I  am  persuaded  in  this  school,  that  true 
wisdom  may  be  found,  which  continued  prosperity  often 
prevents  us  from  learning. 

All  things  are  big  with  jest,  when  we  have  the  humor. 
My  habits,  for  many  years,  had  been  to  get  out  of  my 
bed  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  at  which  time  the 
"  early  bird  "  crows  in  summer.  This  hour  is  very  good, 
but  in  the  long  nights  of  the  winter  months,  when  the 
sun  rises  after  seven  o'clock,  and  the  day  fleetheth  as  a 
shadow,  the  two  hours  before  day-light,  give  much 
rest  in  the  bed,  and  too  much  time  for  reflection,  for  an 
old  man.  Wishing  to  be  temperate  in  all  things,  I  have 
recently  attempted  to  change  my  habits  in  this  thing, 
set  up  an  hour  or  so  later,  and  get  up  at  five  o'clock ;  for 
seven  hours  solid  sleep  is  all  I  require. 

At  the  third  trial,  I  succeeded  awaking  at  four,  and 
sleeping  until  six  o'clock.     The  next  night  I  awoke  at 


140 

five  o'clock,  with  a  dream  very  clearly  impressed  ou 
my  mind,  and  as  my  single  log  of  hickory  wood  had 
burned  out  of  its  ashy  bed,  and  I  had  a  good  tire  ready, 
concluded  to  get  up  and  write  down  my  dream. 

I  dreamed  that  I  was  at  a  strange  house,  in  the  com- 
pany of  some  persons,  with  whom  I  had  been  ac- 
quainted (now  dead),  and  with  others,  who  may  be  liv- 
ing; that  I  slept  all  night  in  this  house,  and  in  the  morn- 
ing I  wanted  water  to  wash  my  face;  that  there  were  no 
servants  in  the  house,  but  in  the  company  I  had  seen 
two  little  girls  with  white  silky  hair,  one  of  them  about 
ten  years  old.  In  my  dilemma  where  to  find  water,  the 
eldest  girl  came  in  barefooted,  wdth  a  bucket  of  fresh 
water. 

I  asked  her  if  she  was  strons;  enousrh  to  draw  w^ater 
from  the  well  herself. 

She  answered  that  she  was. 

I  asked  her  name.  She  told  me  the  name  of  her 
father,  and  the  trial  he  had  with  his  children,  and  that 
one  of  her  sisters  was  married.  I  asked  her  what  her 
father  was  doing.  She  hung  her  head,  and  said  that  he 
was  in  Petersburg,  doing  nothing. 

She  was  fixing  my  room,  and  I  noticed  her  white 
bare-feet,  and  that  she  had  a  hump  between  her  shoul- 
ders, as  if  her  spine  had  been  afi:*ected,  and  that  her 
beautiful  silken  white  hair  nearly  concealed  this  de- 
formity. She  said  that  they  were  very  poor,  and  they 
would  be  pleased  if  I  would  employ  her,  or  get  her  a 
place  to  serve,  as  she  w^ished  to  make  some  money,  as 
all  of  their  family  wished  to  go  to  the  South.  I  then 
asked  her  how  much  w^ages  she  wanted  for  her  services. 
She  hesitatingly  named  a  larger  sum  than  I  knew  could 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  141 

l>e  obtained,  which  I  attributed  to  her  youth  and  ignor- 
ance of  the  value  of  money,  and  her  desire  to  help  her 
mother. 

She  wc'nt  out  of  my  room. 

I  walked  to  the  well  whence  she  drew  the  water. 
Somehow,  I  had  not  washed  yet,  and  lookin^^  around,  I 
saw  a  gourd  and  a  pnil  of  water,  and  was  in  the  act  of 
pouring  water  in  one  hand  to  wash  my  face  with  the 
other  hand,  when  an  old  acquaintance  suddenly  ap- 
peared, leading  his  horse.  lie  took  the  gourd  and 
poured  the  water  in  my  two  hands,  to  wash  my  face. 
Our  conversation  I  do  not  recollect;  but,  another  one 
came  up  with  a  lot  of  tickets  in  his  hand,  and  said :  for 
selling  so  many,  the  company  had  made  him  a  present 
of  what  he  held.  He  lighted  a  cigarette  and  went  his 
way.  Then  another  of  the  company,  an  old  man  and 
now  dead,  who  Avas  a  general  in  the  Confederate  army, 
and  with  whom  I  had  conversed  the  night  before,  came 
to  me  in  his  night-dress,  conversed  very  cheerfully  with 
me,  and  then  went  to  his  room  up  stairs.  As  I  passed, 
I  heard  him  singing,  accompanied  by  the  grave  sounds  of 
some  instrument,  that  I  had  heard  no  wliere  else  in  my 
travels,  in  any  countrj-. 

The  father  of  the  little  girl  was  a  "rare  boy,"  his 
father  was  a  rich  man,  and  one  of  the  best  men,  I  ever 
knew. 

His  son  married  against  his  father's  wish,  whilst  he 
was  at  college,  became  intemperate,  and  died  many 
years  since,  and  I  am  pretty  sure,  did  not  leave  nine 
children.  I  only  saw  two  of  them,  in  my  dream;  the 
smaller  one,  I  saw  but  once. 

'Tis  said  by  men,  that  dreams  mostly  come  from  our 


142 

previous  thoughts  or  actions.  lu  this  case  it  cannot  be 
so.  I  have  neither  thought  of,  or  had  occasion  to  think 
of  this  dead  father  or  his  family,  for  more  than  twenty 
years.  Our  homes  were  far  apart.  I  saw  his  beautiful 
wife  once,  and  did  not  wonder  that,  in  his  mad  frolic, 
he  should  have  married  her  to  the  grief  of  his  parents ; 
but  as  intemperance  and  disobedience  are  the  sins  of 
fathers  visited  on  the  children,  to  the  third  and  fourth 
generations,  my  dream  may  prove  true  in  this  thing 
also. 

I  knew  that  he  had  a  pious  young  brother,  who,  on 
his  early  death-bed,  requested  his  father  to  allow  him  to 
dispose  of  the  portion  of  his  estate,  intended  for  him. 
His  request  was  willingly  granted,  and  he  willed  all  of 
it  to  build  an  Orphan  Asylum,  w^hich  bears  his  name  to 
this  day,  and  proves,  that  even  a  boy  may  die,  yet  he 
liveth  and  speaketh  after  death,  and  why  should  so  many 
persons  prefer  to  live  and  grow,  as  the  weeds  and  briers; 
die,  "and  rot  prematurely."  "Train  up  a  child  in  the 
way  he  should  go,  and  when  he  is  old  he  will  not  de- 
part from  it."  Disobedience  in  those  subject  to  him, 
has  caused  the  writer  more  loss  and  anxiety,  than  all  other 
troubles  put  together,  and  he  has  had  his  share  to  con- 
tend with. 

Oh,  could  I  give  expression  to  my  thoughts,  and  "  in 
the  height  of  this  great  argument,  justify  the  ways  of 
God  to  men,"  would  show^  that  human  life  itself  is  only 
a  passage  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave ;  that  we  exist 
only  as  we  energize ;  that  pleasure  is  the  reflux  of  unim- 
peded energy,  that  in  action  thus  continued,  is  the  exis- 
tence, happiness,  improvement  and  perfection  of  our 
being;  that  what  we  know  is  as  nothing  to  what  we 
know^  not ;   that  prosterity  allows  to  every  man  his  true 


''CALAIS-MORALE."  143 

value  and  proper  honors,  that  the  example  of  others  is 
the  school  of  wisdom,  and  that  our  vices  set  a  bad  ex- 
ample. 

"'Tis  an  easy  passage  down  to  hell, 

But  to  come  back,  once  there,  you  cannot  well." 

In  a  long  life  (though  almost  a  constant  dreamer), 
and  though,  persons  who  dream,  are  said  not  to  enjoy 
sound  sleep,  my  sleep  has  always  been  perfect  and 
prolonged  through  the  seven  or  eight  hours,  which  may 
have  been  required  according  to  age  and  the  work  of 
the  day.  I  can  only  say,  I  have  rarely  had  an  unpleas- 
ant dream  during  my  long  life,  and  these  few  were 
clearly  to  be  traced  to  an  irregular  dinner  or  supper. 
It  is  not  bad  to  be  a  favored  dreamer,  and  to  think  only 
of  angels.  Others  are  not  so  fortunate,  and  dream  only 
of  devils ;  that  again  depends  much  on  the  character  of 
the  dreamer. 

Persons  who  are  always  busy,  and  who  go  cheerfully 
to  their  daily  tasks,  are  the  least  disturbed  by  the  fluctu- 
ations of  business,  and  at  night  they  sleep  with  perfect 
composure.  But  many  dream  of  nothing  but  money 
day  and  night.  What  is  it  ?  'Tis  the  fool's  wisdom, 
the  knave's  reputation,  the  wise  man's  jewel,  the  rich 
man's  trouble,  the  poor  man's  desire,  the  covetous  man^s 
ambition,  and  the  idol  of  all.  Merit  is  measured  in  this 
world  by  success. 

I  have  observed  that  in  order  to  be  a  reasonable  crea- 
ture, it  is  necessary  to  be  a  down-right  madman.  I  have 
noticed  too,  that  he  who  thinks  a  man  a  rogue,  is  very 
certain  to  see  one  when  he  shaves  himself. 


144 


Flotsam  and  Jetsam. 


"WS%  HERE  is  no  character  more  contemptible  than 
\^^^  a  fortune-hunting  man;  and,  I  can  see  no  reason, 
why  a  fortune-hunting  woman  is  not  contemptible 
also. 

Nothing  is  truly  elegant  that  does  not  unite  with 
'beauty. 

"When  Ev^e  brought  woe  to  all  mankind, 

Old  Adam  called  her  woe-man  ; 
And  when  she  wooed,  with  love  so  kind, 

lie  then  pronounced  her  woo-man  ; 
And,  now,  with  folly,  dress,  and  pride. 

Their  husband's  pockets  trimming, 
The  ladies  are  so  full  of  whims 

That  people  call  them  whim-men". 

Silence,  says  Confucius,  is  a  friend  that  will  never 
l>etray. 

*'  But  I  have  cares  that  would  break  a  heart  of  stone. 
My  wife  has  so  encroached  upon  every  one  of  my  priv- 
ileges, that  I  am  now  no  more  tban  a  lodger  in  my  own 
house ;  but,  a  little  spirit !  iS'o ;  though  I  had  the 
spirit  of  a  lion !  I  do  rouse,  sometimes ;  but,  what 
then  ?  always  haggling  and  haggling.  A  man  is  tired 
of  getting  the  better,  before  his  wife  is  tired  of  losing 
"the  victory."  It  is  a  melancholy  consideration, 
indeed,  that  our  chief  comforts  often  produce  our 
greatest  anxieties." 


"CALAIS-MORALE."  A     145 

One  that  was  a  icoman,  sir ;  but,  rest  her  soul — she's 
-dead ! 

Women  were  born,  so  Fate  decLares, 
To  smooth  our  linen  and  our  cares, 
And  'tis  but  just;  for,  by  my  trotlj. 
They  are  very  apt  to  ruiiie  both. 

She  who  makes  her  husband  and  her  children  happy  ; 
who  reclaims  the  one  from  vice  and  trains  up  the  other 
to  virtue,  is  a  much  greater  character  than  ladies 
•described  in  romance. 

AVomen,  it  has  been  observed,  are  not  naturally 
formed  for  great  cares  themselves,  but  to  soften  those 
of  men. 

Their  tenderness  is  the  proper  reward  for  the  dangers 
we  undergo  for  their  preservation,  and  the  ease  and 
cheerfulness  of  their  conversation,  our  desirable  retreat 
from  the  fatigues  of  intense  application. 

They  are  contined  in  the  narrow  limits  of  domestic 
assiduity,  and,  when  they  stray  beyond  them,  they 
move  beyond  their  sphere,  and,  consequently,  without 
grace  ;  but,  as  to  real  refinement,  we  must  look  to  the 
ladies.  They  judge  of  refinement  by  the  eye  ;  he  by  the 
test  of  conscience,  and  by  a  heart  not  easily  deceived  ; 
aware  that  that  which  is  base  no  polish  can  make 
sterling;  and  that  vice,  though  well  perfumed  and  ele- 
gantly dressed,  like  an  unburied  carcase,  tricked  with 
flowers,  is  but  a  garnished  nuisance,  fitter  far  for  cleanly 
riddance  than  for  gay  attire. 

The  Itlack  drop  and  vanity,  routes  and  rouge,  fash- 
ion   and   fun,   have    made    many     craniums    noddles. 

Hence  si^-ino^  those   demoniacal  passions  of  envy,  jeal- 

10 


146 

ousj  and  madness,  which  more  or  less  mar  the  peace  of 
all  mankind. 

Envy  and  ennui  are  twin-sisters,  but  the  goddess  of 
the  furies  is  jealously,  a  passion  against  which  persuasion 
and  argument  are  equally  vain.  The  proofs  which  con- 
vince, but  tend  to  confirm  its  fatal  error.  Of  all  the 
pangs  of  which  humanity  is  susceptible,  jealousy  is  the 
worst ;  for  most  frequently  it  is  an  efiect  without  a  cause, 
a  monster  engendered  in  the  imagination  of  its  victim, 
and  feeding  alike  upon  its  heart  and  brain  ;  it  withers- 
the  rose  upon  the  cheek  of  beauty,  dethrones  reason 
from  its  judgement  seat,  and  gives  the  reins  to  passion. 
It  is  the  punishment  of  Tantulus,  without  his  crime. 

To  the  mind,  madness  would  be  a  relief,  and  death  a 
blessing.  It  takes  a  martyr's  pleasure  in  its  torments^ 
and  adds  to  their  intensity  by  the  ingenious  skill,  by 
which  it  adduces  proofs  from  air-drawn  nothings,  ad- 
ding fuel  to  the  flame  by  which  it  suffers.  It  violates 
contracts,  absolves  society,  breaks  wedlock,  betrays 
friends  and  neighbors ;  nobody  is  good,  and  every  one  is- 
either  doing  or  designing  mischief.  Its  origin  is  guilt  or 
ill-niiture,  and|by  reflection  it  thinks  its  own  fault  to  be 
other  men's,  just  as  he  who  is  overrun  with  jaundice, 
thinks  others  to  be  yellow. 

The  sex  are  like  poor  tradesmen,  who  put  all  their 
best  goods  to  be  seen  at  the  windows. 

The  glory  is  not  in  never  falling,  but  in  rising  every 
time  we  fall. 

In  a  word,  positive  happiness  is  constitutional  and  in- 
capable of  increase ;  misery  is  artificial  and  generally  pro- 
ceeds from  our  own  folly. 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  147 

Poets  are  all  who  love  ;  who  feel  great  truths  and  tell 
them.     The  truth  of  truths  is  love. 

The  ground-work  of  all  manly  characters  is  veraci'ty, 
or  the  habit  of  truthfulness.  Virtue  lies  at  the  founda- 
tion of  everything  else.  The  truth  is,  when  the  mind  is 
conscious  of  its  own  existence,  it  is  miserable ;  when  un- 
conscious, it  is  happy ;  and  this  unconsciousness  is  best 
obtained  by  active  employment.  Labor  is  not  a  curse, 
but  a  blessing. 

The  old  simile  of  the  mill-stones  apply  here,  if  they 
are  not  grinding  corn,  they  are  grinding  each  other. 

All  things,  even  work,  is  a  past-time  to  him  who  wills 
it  so. 

"Yea;  seest  thou  a  man  that  is  diligent  in  his  busi- 
ness, be  shall  stand  before  kings,  he  shall  not  stand  be- 
fore mean  men." 

The  greatest  truths  are  the  simplest.  So  are  the 
greatest  men  and  women. 

Poetry  is  the  key  to  the  hierroglyphics  of  natui'e.  AVe 
are  speaking  of  great  poets;  men,  who  can,  by  the 
powers  of  their  voice,  move  a  nation  to  tears,  or  excite 
an  army  to  enthusiasm.  Poetry  is  utterance  of  the  pas- 
sion for  truth,  beauty,  and  power,  modulating  language 
on  the  principle  of  variety  and  conformity. 

Let  it  not  be  said,  that  you  have  only  a  mother  ;  no 
capital,  no  influential  friends,  no  business.  I  say,  make 
them;  and  if  diligent  in  everything  you  undertake,  they 
will  make  themselves ;  and  I  admire  the  answer  of  a 
a  boy,  to  one  who  taunted  him  with  his  father  being  a 
drummer.     ''But  didn't  he  drum  well,  too  ?  " 


148  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

No  man  can  be  happy,  who  is  not  the  object  of  his 
own  esteem. 

Riches  do  not  make  a  man  rich,  as  has  been  well  ob- 
served in  some  romance. 

Forward,  prating  children,  usually  make  ordinary 
men.  I  know  no  observation,  more  certain  and  general 
than  this. 

Whoever  deviates  from  these  rules,  how  rich  soever 
he  ma}^  be,  will  throw  his  gold  on  a  danghill,  and  never 
know^  the  real  value.  A  man  of  taste  has  nothing  to  do 
with  riches;  it  is  sufficient  for  liim  to  be  free,  and  to  be 
his  own  master. 

There  are  no  obstructions  more  fatal  to  fortune  than 
pride  and  resentment.  If  you  must  resent  injuries  at 
all,  at  least  suppress  your  indignation  until  you  become 
rich,  and  then  show  it.  The  resentment  of  a  poor  man 
is  like  the  elforts  of  a  harmless  insect  to  sting ;  it  may 
get  him  crushed,  but  it  cannot  defend  him. 

Whilst  the  right  in  everything  should  be  preferred, 
by  all  reasonable  creatures,  even  as  a  matter  of  policy; 
vet,  when  we  look  at  the  w^orld  as  it  is,  the  wrong  pre- 
dominates, and,  in  so  many  things,  under  the  semblance 
of  right,  that  I  am  not  sure  the  word-makers  were  not 
xit  a  loss  for  the  word  right. 

Write^  we  know,  is  written  right. 
When  we  see  it  written  w^rite ; 
But,  when  we  see  it  w^-itten  wright, 
W«  know  it  is  not  written  right ; 
For  write,  to  have  it  written  right, 
Must  not  be  written  right  or  wright ; 
Nor  yet  should  it  be  written  rite  ; 
For  write,  if  so,  'tis  written  right. 


"CALAIS-MORALE."  14:9 

The  love  and  respect  of  man  for  woman  are,  perhaps, 
greater  when  sexual  sentiments  are  completely  set  aside. 

Those  persons  who  exalt  themselves  on  the  fame  of 
their  ancestors,  should  be  humbled  at  the  ill  con- 
duct of  their  posterity. 

The  two  sexes  seem  placed  as  spies  on  each  other; 
and  are  furnished  with  abilities  adopted  for  mutual  in- 
spection. 

Sun  yourself  in  the  ray  of  woman's  friendship,  the 
only  one  that  retains  warmth  as  life  declines  towards- 
the  horizon,  and  straightway  you  are  a  sensualist. 

I  was  a  better  man  at  forty  than  at  twenty;  yet  the 
world  looked  on  me  as  heroic  at  one  age  and  demoni- 
cal at  the  other.     So  much  for  its  justice. 

Thus  it  is  with  all — their  chief  and  constant  care  is- 
to  seem  everything  but  w^hat  they  are 

Well,  suppose  it  a  bounce — surely,  a  poet  can  try. 
By  a  bounce,  now  and  then,  to  get  courage  to  fly. 

The  devil's  meal  is  all  bran,  and  content  the  true- 
philosopher's  stone.  I'll  not  admit,  however,  that  man 
was  made  to  mourn  ;  use  common  sense,  and  half  the- 
battle  is  won. 

The  good  man  suffers  but  to  gain. 
And  every  virtue  springs  from  pain. 
As  aromatic  plants  bestow 
,  Xo  spicy  fragrance  as  they  grow. 

But,  crushed  or  trodden  to  the  ground, 
Diffuse  their  balmy  sweets  around. 

"  Diligence  is  the  mistress  of  success,"  and  a  good 
maxim  is  never  out  of  season. 


150  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

Above  all  thins^s,  never  touch  a  romance  or  novel. 
These  paint  beauty  in  colors  more  charming  than 
nature,  and  describes  happiness  that  man  never  tastes. 
How  delusive,  how  destructive  are  these  pictures  of  con- 
suniate  bliss  !  They  teach  the  youthful  mind  to  sigh 
after  beauty  and  happiness  that  never  existed  ;  to  des- 
pise the  little  good  that  fortune  has  mixed  in  our  cup, 
by  expecting  more  than  she  ever  gave. 

Frugality,  and  even  avarice,  in  the  lower  orders  of 
mankind  are  indications  of  true  ambition.  These  afford 
the  only  ladder  for  the  poor  to  rise  to  preferment. 

Teach  your  children  thrift  and  economy.  The}^  really 
cannot  learn  much  even  from  the  best  books  that  are 
written  ;  from  them  they  may  learn  to  be  generous 
before  they  are  taught  by  experience  the  necessity  of 
being  prudent;  but  laziness  and  sloth  are  perfectly  des- 
atructive  to  every  good  thing,  and  I  must  quote  what  I 
heard  Spurgeon,  the  great  preacher,  of  London,  say 
in  a  sermon  in  regard  to  it.  He  said  :  **  I  can  almost 
forgive  a  drunkard,  but,  for  a  lazy  man,  I  do  think 
there  is  very  little  pardon. 

A  Good  Daughter. — There  are  other  ministers  of  love 
more  conspicuous  than  she,  but  none  in  which  a  gentler, 
lovelier  spirit  dwells,  and  none  to  whom  the  hearfs 
warm  requital  more  joyfully  responds.  She  is  the  steady 
light  of  her  father's  house  ;  her  ideal  is  indissolubly  con- 
nected with  that  of  his  fireside;  she  is  his  morning  sun- 
light and  evening  star.  The  grace,  vivacity,  and  ten- 
derness of  her  sex  have  their  place  in  the  mighty  sway 
which  she  holds  over  his  spirit  ;  she  is  the  pride  and 
ornament  of  his  hospitality,  and  liis  gentle  nurse  in 
sickness. 


*'  CALAIS-MORALE."  151 

The  Ideal  Woman. — There  exist  women  who  are  not 
vain,  frivolous  and  inconstant,  and  who  possess  virtues 
and  attractions  so  great,  a  charm  so  deep,  that  the  man 
who  loves  them  once,  must  love  forever !  You  say  that 
there  are  such  women  ?  I  say,  then,  why  did  not  you, 
who  are  always  in  love  with  some  woman  or  other, 
remain  faithful  to  at  least  one  of  these  paragons  ?  Be- 
cause I  have  never  met  one  yet ;  that  we  did  not  meet 
is,  assuredly,  no  fault  of  mine.  Heaven  knows  with 
what  unwearied  patience  I  liave  sought  her.  I  ask  not 
for  superhuman  beauty,  or  impossible  virtues.  I  limited 
my  desires  to  what  was  attainable,  and,  yet,  I  have 
never  found  her.  I  have  seen  beautiful  women,  but 
they  were  not  lovel}'  ;  witty  women,  but  they  were  too 
•clever  to  have  a  heart;  good  women,  but  they  were 
too  virtuous  to  condescend  to  be  amiable.  Often  had  I 
thought  that,  in  one  of  the  many  women  I  had  met,  I 
w^ould  detect  something  that  reminded  me  of  ray  ideal. 

A  little  lady  fascinated  me  a  whole  week  with  the  most 
•silvery  voice  that  I  had  ever  heard,  until  I,  unfortu- 
nately, discovered  that  the  soft  voice  would  sa}-  rash, 
harsh,  and  unkind  words ;  then  the  charm  was  at  once 
broken.  I  may  have  met  my  ideal  without  recognizing 
her  ?  Impossible  !  I  would  have  known  her  without  ever 
seeing  her,  as  we  would  recognize  the  unseen  flower  by 
its  pure  fragrance. 

I  may  find  her  yet  ?  I  am  too  old.  The  woman  I 
would  have  striven  for  and  loved,  like  a  knight  of  old, 
has  never  come  across  my  path.  She  may  be  wrinkled 
and  gray-headed  now,  or  a  grandmother,  for  ought  I 
know ;  or,  worse  still,  she  was,  perhaps,  born  only  the 
other  day,  to  bloom  in  all  the  ^race  of  womanhood, 
when  I  am  in  the  grave. 


152 

And  if  your  lips,  would  keep  from  slips, 
Five  things  observe  with  care : 
Of  what  you  eat,  of  what  you  drink ; 
And  how,  and  when,  and  where. 

My  custom  was  to  go  to  bed  at  nine  o'clock,  and  tc 
rise  at  four ;  for  I  knew  that  one  hour's  sleep  before- 
midnight,  was  worth  three  after,  to  restore  the  system  ; 
that  diet  and  quiet  were  the  main  secrets  for  health  of 
body  and  mind,  and  that  whatsoever  is  the  father  of  a. 
disease,  an  ill  diet  was  the  mother  of  it. 

I  never  have  missed  a  railroad  connection  or  had  an 
accident;  indeed,  I  have  requested  every  hotel-keeper 
not  to  have  me  called,  and  told  them,  if  I  was  not 
in  time,  I  w^ould  tarry  another  day,  and  pay  their  bills.- 
If  persons  \cill  wake,  and  have  regular  habits,  this  thing 
is  certain  and  easy. 

Early  to  bed  and  early  to  rise. 
Aye,  note  it  down  in  your  brain  ! 

For  it  helpeth  to  make  the  foolish  wise 
And  uproots  the  weeds  of  pain. 

Ye,  who  are  walking  on  the  thorns  of  care,. 

Who  sigh  for  a  softer  bower ; 
Try  what  can  be  done  in  the  morning's  air,. 

And  make  use  of  the  early  hour.. 

Full  many  a  day  is  forever  lost 

By  delaying  its  work  till  to-morrow  ;: 

The  minutes  of  sloth  have  often  cost 
Long  years  of  bootless  sorrow. 

And  ye  who  would  win  the  lasting  w^-eatb 

Of  content  and  peaceful  power; 
Ye  who  w'ould  couple  labor  and  healtb. 

Must  begin  at  the  early  hour. 

MISS  L.  E.  L. 


"CALAIS-MORALE."  153 

TEMPUS    IRREPPERAlilLE. 


The  lieetness  of  time,  its  final  retreat,  ] 
A  story  oft  told  that'll  bear  to  repeat ; 
Even  repetition,  a^^ain  and  again. 
To  tender  years,  often'r  to  those  on  the  wane — 

Of  all  other's  time,  'tis  the  most  precious  prize,  . 

To  value  it  is  next  to  being  wise.  : 
Of  the  day,  how  many  hours  do  we  sleep  ? 
Of  the  same,  how  many  laugh  and  weep  ? 

Of  the  same,  liow  many  for  to-morrow  ?  ; 

Of  the  same,  how  many  free  of  sorrow  ?  ' 

Of  the  same,  (one  hour)  the  scum  refuse  ?  ] 

Let  us  suppose,  'twas  for  the  wise  to  use  ?  i 

The  last  hour  of  the  day,  free  from  abuse ;  ] 

Shouldn't  we  this  hour  into  minutes  divide,  .                        \ 

^ot  count  long,  but  on  with  its  tide  ?  ■ 

With  live  minutes  write  a  journal  of  the  day..  •; 

With  next  ten,  seventeen  lines  of  this  lay.  ; 

Xext,  estimate  how^  many  remain,  : 

And  how  to  use  them  with  surest  gain :  i 

Resolve,  re-resolve,  and  resolve  the  same,  ; 

Thus  resolving  clearly  losing  game.  j 

A  score  of  minutes,  meantime  have  fled,  •  1 

And  half  of  this  hour  is  hopelessly  dead.-  \ 

Can  ten  more  minutes  repent  this  folly,  j 
And  free  the  remainder  of  Melancholy  ?' 
Hope,  hope,  earthy  God  to  the  rescue. 

Lengthens  and  obscures  the  lost  to  view;  ] 

Opiates  and  points  to  something  new.  "j 

What's  the  clock,  the  hour  I  resign,  j 

At  this  line,  twenty-nine,  making  rhyme.  i 

w.  H.  w^..            j 


■  Mr.  H.  W.  Beecher  said  in  a  sermon,  that  when  true 
lovers  promise  to  love  each  other  forever,  they  are  fools. 
They  might  as  well  promise  each  other  all  the  money  in 
the  National  Banks. 


154 

Women. — The  penchant  of  women  to  manage  their 
husbands  with  absolute  sway,  may  be  interpreted  by  a 
saying  of  Nero's,  who  had  absolute  power,  and  yet  w^as 
miserable. 

He  said,  "what  to  write  conscript  fathers;  in  what 
terms  to  express  myself,  or  what  to  refrain  from  writing, 
is  a  matter  of  such  perplexity,  that  if  I  know^  how  to 
decide,  may  the  just  gods  and  goddesses  of  vengeance 
doom  me  to  die  in  pangs,  worse  than  those  under  which 
I  linger  every  day. 

Of  this  truth,  Tiberius  is  a  melancholy  instance,  neither 
ihe  imperial  dignity,  nor  the  gloom  of  solitude,  nor  the 
rocks  of  Caprae  could  shield  him  from  himself;  he  lived 
on  the  rack  of  guilt,  and  the  wounded  spirit  groaned  in 
agony. 

And  if  you  would  search  every  kingdom  in  the  world 
to  see  the  man  who  is  most  unhappy  of  all  his  country- 
men, go  directly  to  the  sovereign,  particularly  if  he  be 
an  absolute  monarch.  Now  if  this  absolute  power  makes 
sovereigns  miserable ;  might  we  not,  in  a  spirit  of  con- 
sideration say  to  the  many  restless,  miserable,  married 
women  w^e  hear  of,  that  this  penchant  of  theirs  for  abso- 
lute sway,  may  not  be  the  least  cause  of  this  thing,  and  that 
if  they  w^ould  in  a  more  common-sense  manner,  try 
only  to  assume  the  exercise  of  one-half  of  this  preroga- 
tive, wedlock  would  not  have  so  harsh  a  name,  or  the 
half  of  its  opponents. 


Oares  to  our  coffin  adds  a  nail,  no  noubt. 
While  every  burst  of  laughter  draws  one  out. 

Xeep  your  shop,  and  it  will  keep  you. 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  155 

iMETASTASIO   AL  FUROR  D'  AVERSA  SORTE. 


He  shall  not  dread  misfortune's  angry  mein, 
Nor  feebly  sink  beneath  her  tempest  rude, 

Whose  soul  has  learned,  thro'  many  a  trying  scene 
To  smile  at  fate,  and  sutler  unsubdued. 

In  the  rough  school  of  billows,  clouds  and  storms, 
Nursed  and  matured,  the  pilot  learns  his  art ; 

Thus  fates  dread  ire,  by  many  a  conHict  forms 
The  lofty  spirit  and  enduring  heart. 

The  torrent  wave  that  breaks  with  force, 

Impetuous  down  the  Alpine  height, 
Complains  and  struggles  in  its  course, 

But  sparkles  as  the  diamond  bright. 

The  stream,  in  shadowy  valley  deep 

May  slumber  in  its  narrow  bed ; 
But  silent  in  unbroken  sleep 

Its  lustre  and  its  life  are  lied. 

MRS.  HEMANS." 

She  was  above  the  miserable  disparagement  of  labor 
and  learning,  and  practice  and  the  advice  of  the  world  ; 
she  did  study,  both  early  and  late,  her  whole  life  long  ; 
making  poetry,  as  it  deserves,  no  less  a  subject  of  science 
than  a  gift  of  genius. 

Xero  said,  that  a  man  who  had  lived  thirty  years,  and 
was  not  his  own  doctor,  had  lived  to  little  purpose.  If 
any  one  cares  to  Ike,  and  their  three-score  and  ten  are 
as  yet  all  that  life  can  give,  he  must  be  strictly  governed 
by  these  rules,  and  be  temperate  in  all  things. 

Suspect  men  or  women  who  effect  great  softness  of 
manner;  an  unruffled  evenness  of  temper,  and  a  con- 
versation studied  slow  and  deliberate. 


156  "  CALIAS-MORALE."  , 

The  rest  which  one  gets  after  strong  feeling,  is  not 
sinful ;  men  have  periods  of  depression,  when  they  try 
to  whip  thecQselves  up.  It  is  like  spurring  a  jaded  steed. 
Bye  and  bye  he  will  tumble  in  the  road  and  die.  Let  him 
rest. 

The  next  thing  to  ''doing  nothing,"  is  the  reading  of 
novels  and  romances.  Indeed  it  is  a  kind  of  intoxica- 
tion, akin  to  that  of  w^hiskey,  of  which  I  have  said  so 
much  in  this  book.  Whilst  its  apparent  effects  is  not 
ostensible,  yet  to  those  who  have  seen  and  known  its  ef- 
fect upon  mothers  and  their  children's  children,  can  at 
least  pronounce  it  a  secret  sin,  visited  on  the  children  to 
the  third  and  fourth  generation. 

Yes,  Napoleon  the  First,  was  right  in  his  opinion,  and 
if  he  chanced  to  see  a  maid  of  honor  with  a  novel  or 
romance,  he  took  the  book  from  her  and  put  it  in  tke 
fire. 

I  am  sorry  to  add  that  alchohol  is  not  the  only  intoxi- 
cating draught. 

Could  men  but  realize  how  much  they  can  increase 
their  own  felicity  ;  how  much  real  happiness  they  can 
strew  in  the  pathway  of  life,  for  all  with  whom  they  may 
chance  to  meet,  by  exercising  true  chanty ;  there  would 
be  no  necessity  for  urging  any  one  to  be  kind.  Yet  it 
is  to  be  feared  that  not  only  mankind  in  general  ;  but 
men,  as  a  large  proportion  of  professed  Christians  in 
this  respect,  often  forget  the  example  of  their  Savior ; 
who  was  ever  kind,  even  to  his  most  bitter  enemies. 
What  could  we  not  accomplish  in  trying  to  cultivate  in. 
our  hearts  those  feelings  of  kindness  to  our  kind^. 

One  stroke  fells  not  an  oak. 


157 


Fills    des   Regiment. 


'  WAS  domiciled  at  ''Hotel  de  Paradise,"  at  Sum- 
merville,  S.  C,  for  the  winter  of  1802,  in  order  to 
palliate  a  throat  atiection.  If  tlie  hotel  was  not  kept  by 
a  Frenchman,  the  post-office  was,  *'  Bideau  ''  being 
post-master;  and  the  landlord,  if  not  a  judge,  was  called 
Judge  Cooper.  He  was  poor  and  eccentric,  but  had  a 
good  education,  and  refinement  of  its  kind,  and  was  a 
philosopher  too,  as  to  eating  and  drinking,  believing 
that  an  excess  of  either  was  hurtful  to  his  guests.  His 
bar-room  had  only  pure  soft  spring  water,  and  his  table 
nothing  gross ;  and  as  he  had  mostly  lady  boarders,  we 
never  had  a  roast.  He  always  sat  at  the  foot  of  the 
table,  and  served  his  guest  with  very  small  samples  of 
what  he  considered  best.  The  tongue,  was  served 
up  at  every  meal.  He  never  ceased  talking.  He  had 
<3ats,  terriers,  and  pointer  dogs ;  but  he  had  only  two  ser- 
vants, Nancey  and  Dandy,  to  do  everything. 

Dandy  was  a  trump,  and  looked  as  it  he  had  been 
recently  captured  from  an  African  desert.  The  scraps 
from  the  table  were  not  plenty,  and  the  terriers  were  re- 
fined ;  for  true  terriers  should  never  have  enough  to  eat 
when  they  are  puppies. 

There  w^ere  two  pure  Italian  grey-hounds  at  a  house 
near  by,  also  a  red  and  black  Newfoundland,  one  of 
pure  breed,  belonging  to  a  guest,  and  of  the  color  of 
the  hyena  or   raccoon  ;   another   a  native   dog,  hairless 


158  *'  CALAIS-MORALE." 

Jike  Mexican  dogs ;  so  that  dogs  were  almost  as  unique 
as  the  main  building  and  cottages  of  Paradise  Hotel. 
These  were  built  of  planks,  nailed  endwise. 

'Tis  true,  we  often  arose  from  the  table  with  better 
appetites,  than  when  we  sat  down  ;  yet,  the  Judge  had 
reasoned  us  into  the  belief  that  he  had  done  us  two  bene- 
fits: the  first  to  our  healths,  the  second  to  his  meagre 
purse,  and  that  an  appetite  was  the  only  thing  that  every 
person  desired,  and  then  too  quickly  got  rid  of. 

He  had  been  a  law^'er,  and  was  so  fond  of  talking  on 
the  other  side,  that  he  had  almost  talked  himself  into  a 
"Union  man." 

I  came  to  dinner  from  Charleston  every  day,  and 
brought  the  latest  war  news,  the  most  discussed  dish  of 
the  table.  To  humor  my  talk,  knowing  that  Mrs.^Gir- 
arddeau,  one  of  my  Fills  des  Regiment,  carried  a  revol- 
ver, and  having  some  pertinent  news,  I  asked  her  to  loan 
her  revolver  to  me,  and  placed  it  beside  my  plate.  I 
then  told  the  Judge  to  look  sharp,  whilst  the  news  I  did 
relate.  He  was  fool  enough  to  think  I  was  half  in 
earnest,  so  he  minded  his  Ps.  and  Qs.,  w^hilst  he  digested 
my  news. 

Ile.coukl  call  Xancey  and  Dandy,  with  a  voice  and 
emphasis,  that  no  other  landlord  could  immitate. 

He  had  persuaded  himself  that  it  never  snowed  in 
Summerville,  so  we  had  no  need  of  fires.  Our  dinners 
smelt  of  pine  knots;  our  sleep  at  night  on  the  hard 
"what-nots,"  made  us  dream  of  airy  nothings,  and  of 
Paradise  and  its  surroundings ;  but  the  very  air  we 
breathed,  had  healing  on  its  wings ;  and  this  zephy  bear- 
ing turpentine,  cured  consumption  and  throat  afiections. 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  1  59 

I  had  a  man  servant,  a  good  carpenter;  and  like  his 
master,  did  not  wish  to  be  idle  in  his  leisure  ;  so  he  asked 
me  to  buy  two  or  three  acres  of  land  and  let  him  bnild 
a  cottage  on  it.  IFe  built  it,  and  put  a  phmk  fence 
around  the  three  acres. 

The  war  mado  a  winter  in  Summerville. 

When  I  visited  Charleston,  in  November  18G5, 1  went 
up  to  Summerville,  and  found  that  the  furniture,  left  in 
mj  cottage  by  my  son-in-law,  and  the  fencing  had  dis- 
appeared. The  cottage  was  occupied  by  negroes,  the 
town  full  of  colored  soldiers,  and  Paradise  Hotel  in  the 
possession  of  Gen.  Jas.  C.  Beecher  and  his  wife.  I 
went  to  the  reception  room ;  the  General  was  absent, 
but  Mrs.  General  Beecher  was  in,  trying  to  reconcile  a 
female  African  with  her  deserting  spouse.  I  sat  wait- 
ing an  audience ;  the  negress  was  obstinate  and  would 
not  agree  to  have  him  sooner  or  later,  so  I  wrote  a  let- 
ter, and  here  is  the  reply: 

Headquarters  Sub-District,  ) 

Military  District  of  Charleston,        \ 

Summerville,  S.  C,  Dec.  13,  18G5.  ) 

AVm.  H.  Wesson,  Esq.  : 

Sir—l  have  your  note  of  the  23d  Xovember.  In  re- 
spect to  property  mentioned,  I  promptly  ordered  the 
same  returned  to  your  son,  and  as  to  complaint  of  dep- 
redations, took  measures  to  prevent  the  same.  Allow 
me  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  barracks  were 
occupied  by  United  States  troops  long  before  my  com- 
ing, in  latter  part  of  July,  and  by  other  troops  previous- 
ly. I  should  bo  perfectly  willing  to  replace  damage 
done  by  my  own  forces,  wh^re  such  damage  is  shown  ; 


"160  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

'but  I  cannot  undertake  to  repair  damages  or  replace 
^property  simply  because  damage  has  been  done  at  some- 
itime  or  bv  somebody. 

Yours,  very  truly, 

JAMES  C.  BEECHER, 

Brev.  Brifj'GenH  Gom^g. 


I  wrote  to  the  General  again,  and  copy  his  reply  : 

Headquarters  Second  Sub-District,  ^ 

Military  District  of  Charleston,      \ 

SuMMERViLLE,  S.  S.,  Dcc.  21,  1865.  ) 

•Wm.  H.  Wesson,  Esq.  : 

Sir — I   have   yours   of  the    18th  instant.     Have  in- 
structed the  Acting-Quartermaster  to  furnish  teams  re- 
quired for  hauling  lumber  for  repairs  of  fences,  &c. 
Yours  very  truly, 

JAxMES  C.  BEECHER, 

Brev.  Brig-Gert'l  Com^g. 


I  never  saw  the  General,  but  I  have  heard  his 
brother,  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  preach  a  dozen  ser- 
mons, and,  if  he  was  as.  good  a  general  as  his  brother 
is  a  preacher,  be,  too,  is  a  ^'Boarnerges."  I  know  he 
was  good  at  fencing. 

I  commenced  my  military  part  of  the  war  in  Sum- 
merville,  S.  C,  and  the  only  weapon  I  Ijad  during  the 
war  was  Mrs.  Gn-ardeau's  revolver.  At  the  table,  in 
the  presence  of  the  guests,  all  ladies  (except  the  Judge) 
and  in  the  same  room,  I  enlisted  the  first,  a.nd  most  of 
soldieresses  for  mv  Fills  des.Reoriment. 


*'  CALAIS-MORALE."  161 

As  I  commenced  my  peaceable  war  in  Paradise — 
Hotel — it  was  fit  to  end  it  there,  in  times  said  to  be 
peace,  in  conflict  with  a  Federal  general ;  and,  as  I 
•subdued  him  with  two  letters  in  regard  to  the  cottage, 
and  the  fencing^  the  pen  has  been  more  powerful  than 
the  swords  of  the  Confederates,  for  it  conquered  a 
2^eace. 

Judge  Cooper  had  drilled  the  minds  of  the  ladies 
iit  his  table,  and  I  reluctantly  assented  that  Confeder- 
ate cause  had  been  blue,  in  my  estimation,  since  the 
battle  of  Bull  Run,  and  that,  unless  England  or  France 
aided  us  materially,  it  was  only  a  question  of  time, 
not  of  arms  and  men  ;  but,  although  we  were  in  a  bad 
'war,  still,  I  believed  that  every  person  in  the  South 
should  help,  as  far  as  he  could.  With  the  approval  of 
the  ladies  then  at  the  table,  I  w^ould  enhst  a  company  of 
ladies  for  soldieresses,  and  w^ould  call  my  company  the 
-"  Forlorn  Phalanx,  of  South  Carolina." 


THE    TERMS    OF    EXLISTIXG   IX   THE    FILLS     DES    REGIMENT. 

The  Fills,  when  the  wounded  soldiers  were  convales- 
cing, should  attend  in  the  hospitals;  should  get  up 
enack-tables  at  the  places  where  they  were  most  needed, 
for  passing  soldiers,  w^hile  the  less  active  ones  could  knit 
socks  for  the  soldiers  ;  and,  at  the  close  of  the  war,  if  it 
did  not  ruin  me,  I  would  pay  each  Fillie  more  and  better 
money  than  the  Confederate  soldiers  would  get  from  our 
government. 

The  ladies,  approving,  got  some  note  paper,  and 
wrote  as  follows:  11 


162  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

SuMMERViLLE,  S.  C,  Juiie  2,  1862. 

"  FILLS  DES  KEGIMENT." 

The  subscribers  hereto  compose  the  "  Forlorn  Pha- 
lanx," of  South  Carolina.  The}^  pledge  their  property^ 
persons,  and  "  sacred  honor,"  to  be  the  very  last  citizens^ 
who  will  submit  to  Yankee  rule;  they  will  prepare 
themselves  for  battling,  when  necessary  to  sustain  this 
resolve. 

I  wrote  on  the  paper  the  following  couplet : 

The  artillery  would  have  fought  right  well. 
But  of  powder  it  could  not  bear  the  smell ; 
And,  as  the  foe  came  galloping  fast, 
They  hid  in  the  grass  till  they  did  pass. 

Each  subscriber  was  to  write  her  own  name,  and  I 
was  to  put  my  name  first. 

Miss  Gelzer  signed  first  of  the  ladies.  I  enclosed 
her  photograph  and  that  of  General  Stonewall  Jackson 
to  the  Empress  of  France,  in  October,  1867,  and  got  in 
exchange  the  portraits  of  their  Majesties. 

MissPinckney,  daughter  of  Charles  Courtsworth  Pinck- 
ney,  author  of  the  saying  at. the  French  Court,  "Mil- 
lions for  defence,  not  a  cent  for  tribute,"  said  she  would 
sign  ;  also,  her  two  nieces,  the  Misses  Eutledge,  and 
Mrs.  Gerarddeau. 

Miss  Pinckney  was  then  eighty-six  years  old,  as  she 
wrote  opposite  her  name,  but  she  went  to  the  piano  and 
played  a  tune.  She  owned  more  Sea  Islands  and 
negroes  than  any  woman  in  South  Carolina,  and  said 
she  did  not  care  for  the  negroes,  if  freed ;  if  not,  per- 
haps some  of  her  kin   might  take  care  of  them.     She 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  *  163 

died  two  j-ears  afterwards,  aged   eighty-eight.     I  was  at 
her  funeral,  at  St.  ^lichae^s  church,  in  Charleston. 

Miss  Sallie  Rutledge,  one  .pf  her  nieces,  married  the 
Eev.  C.  C.  Pinckney,  and  I  gave  her  an  extra  present 
in  gold,  as  I  had  said  to  them  that,  to  the  one  who  inai'- 
ried  most  to  my  fancy,  after  the  war,  I  would  give  an 
extra  present.  I  called  on  her  after  she  was  married, 
and  made  her  tlie  present  of  a  douhle-headed  Portugese 
gold  coin,  worth  eight  or  nine  dollars.  She  show^ed  me 
a  miniature  of  her  kinsman.  General  Rutledge,  of  the 
Revolutionary  war. 

Miss  Gelzerwas  engaged  to  be  married  to  Mr.  Girard, 
of  Savannah,  Ga.,  then  a  soldier  in  tlie  Confederate 
army. 

JS'ow,  these  seemingly  useless  things  had  more  real 
good  than  fun  in  them,  and  much  good  was  done  which, 
perhaps,  might  not  have  been  had  not  the  proper  stini- 
uIqs  been  given.  It  alleviated,  for  the  time,  the  ennui 
and  depression  which  were  produced  by  the  war.  I 
know  that  a  Georgia  regiment,  in  Charleston,  got  three 
two-bushel  biigs  full  of  Bibles,  and  Miss  Sanders,  of 
Sumter,  knit  fifty-three  pairs  of  socks,  which  she  gave 
to  the  soldiers. 

FILLS    DES    REGIMEXT. 

AYm.  II.  Wesson,       .      .      Carolina  and  Virginia. 
Sue  Linning  Gelzer,    .         .       SummervilUe,  S.  C. 
Adelaide  V.  Gerarddeau,  .    Colliton  District,    do. 
Sally  II.  Rutledge,    .     .        .  Charleston,    do. 

Alice  Cohen, Charleston,    do. 

Ilerriot  Pinckney,  aged  86  years,  Charleston,  do. 
Georgia  Y.  Sanders,  .  .  Sampter  District,  do. 
Eugenia  L.  Hughes,  (Refugee),  James  Island,    do. 


164  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

Sallie  I.  Sanders,        ....    Sumter,  S.  C. 

Laura   A.    Wesson,    (Refugee),  Portsmouth,  Ya. 

Ellen  "Wesson,      .      (Refugee),  Portsmouth,  do. 

Eugenia  O'ilanahan,  (Refugee),  Edisto  Island,  S.  C. 
Eugenia  M.  Hanahan,  (Refugee),  Edisto  Island,    do 

Marianna  Clark,  .  .  (Refugee),  Edisto  Island,  do. 

Lizzie  W.  Loper,         .        .       .      Charleston,  do. 

Rivanna  AV  Rivens,       .       .      .   Charleston,  do. 

Rachel  B.  H.  Cohen,  (Refugee),  Charleston,  do. 

M.  A.  Barnwell,    .      .    (Refugee),  Beaufort,  do. 

Mary  B.  Presslv,     .       .        .       Summerville,  do. 

Anna  M.  Wbeeler,    .        .        .       Charleston,  do. 

Phillip  Cohen,  (age  88)  .      .       .  Charleston,  do. 

M.  Middleton,       ....      Charleston,  do. 

Rebecca  A.  Hicks,  ....         Sumter,  do. 

Sarah  G.  Sanders',       ....     Sumter,  do. 

Emma  R.  Saunders,       ....      Sumter,  do. 

Mary  E.  Ellerbe,        .....         do.  do. 

Carie  E.  Sanders, do.  do. 

Louisa  Arthur,         ....           Camden,  do. 

Eannie  Bracey, Sumter,  do. 

Mrs.  R.  H.  Sanders,       ....         do.  do. 

Cornelia  H.  Sanders,  ....           do.  do. 

Rosa  Adalie  Bee, do. 

C.  Augusta  Gager,      ....         do.  do. 

Josephine  E.  Clark,  (refugee),  Edisto  Island,  do. 

Mary  Hazlehurst,          .         .         Charleston,  do. 
Mary  Gerard,         ...      .         Savannah,  Ga. 

Eannie  Mosel,          ....             do.  do. 

Charlotte  Gerrardeau,       ...          do.  do. 

Kate  Finney,         ....     Charleston,  S.  C. 

Marie  Jenkins,         .       .       .     Summerville,  do. 

-Susan  :N"orth,        ....      Charleston,  do. 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  165 

Emma  II.  Jervey, S.  C. 

Ilunnah  J.  McCall,     .      Darlington  District,   do. 

Kecrnits  and  paper  full,  I  bid  it,  as  I  had  plenty  of 
other  work.  Several  had  proposed  to  join  the  regiment, 
and  on  the  1st  of  April,  1864,  I  pasted  another  piece  of 
paper  to  the  original,  and  wrote  down  the  following  for 
the  additions  to  the  "  Regiment :  " 

The  original  terms  for  enlisting  in  the  Fills  des 
Regiment  were,  that  each  soldieress  would  make  the 
daily  prayer,  that  no  death  should  occur  in  this  army 
*  corps'  during  the  war;  also  that  each  should  become 
accjuainted  with  its  originator,  accidentially.  Unfortu- 
nately the  terms  did  not  include,  that  none  should  mar- 
ry during  the  continuance  of  hostilities ;  hence  the  ef- 
ficency  of  the  *  Regiment '  has  been  materially  im- 
paired by  weddings  daring  the  past  two  years  ;  thereby 
making  it  necessary  that  recruits  make  good  the  proba- 
ble, deficiencies.  It  being  clear  that  in  skirmishes,  raids 
or  any  desultory  warfare,  that  it  is  necessary  to  suc- 
cess that  no  incumbrances,  whatever,  impede  progress. 
Thereupon,  all  recruits  agree  they  will  not  marry  during 
the  war,  as  it  will  be  considered  a  high  misdemeanor — 
subject  to  court-martial,  perhaps  the  execution  of  the 
offendress. 

Of  the  forty-four  names  to  the  original  list,  varying 
from  18  to  88  years  of  age,  not  one  has  died  in  the  two 
years'  service. 

Wm.  il.  Wesson, 

April  1st,  1864.  Recridmg  Agent. 


166 


FILLS    DES    REGIMEXT. 


Mary  E.  Boyd,         .         Darlino^ton  District,  S.  C. 

L.  C.  McCail,     .  .  do  do  do. 

R  E.  Finney,         .  .         Charleston,  do. 

Carie  Y.  Cuttino,  refugee  from  Charleston,  do. 

Rachel  L.  Clitford,    do.       do.  do.  do. 

Carrie  D.  Finney,     .         .         .         do.  do. 

Eliza  E.  Slawson,         .         .         .     do.  do. 

Meta  M.  Blake,      ...  do.  do. 

Hattie  F.  Miller,  refugee  from  do.  do. 

S.  E.  Bissell,         .         .  Summerville,  do. 

A.  S.  Annely,  .  .         Charleston,  do. 

Mary  Ella  Mills,  .  .  do.  do. 

Amelia  Maria  Mills,         .  .         do.  do. 

H.  De  Treville,  refugee  from  Beaufort,  do. 

E.  De  Treville,       do.       do.         do.  do. 

E.  AYashington,        .         .         Summerville,  do. 

Louisa  Durese,      .       .       .       Xew  Orleans,  L«. 

Annie  Baylor  Capron,  Williamsburg,  Va. 

Lucy  Gait  Capron,  (Tres'y  Dep'mt,)      do.  do. 

Elise  Rutledge,         .         .         Charlottesville,  do. 

Llariet  Raven  el,  .  .  do.  do. 

Sue  Simmons,  .         .         .  do.  do. 

E.  II.  Smith,  (Treasury),  Eastern  Shore,  do. 

Constance  Mortimer,         Charleston,  S.  C. 

Annie  Mortimer,         .  do.  do. 

S.  Celestia  Mills,     .         .  do.  do. 

S.  H.  Mallett,     .         .  Sumter,  do. 

Rychie  Haynes,  (Tres'y  Dep'mt.),  Portsmouth,  Va. 

Seventy-three  in  all ;  none  married  (a  contract)  during 
the  war;  one  engaged  to  be  married;  dead,  none. 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  167 

III  May,  1865,  I  walked  forty  miles,  through  General 
Sherman's  raid  going  to  Newberry,  South  Carolina, 
where  I  had  some  property  to  care  for ;  bought  a  lot  of 
cotton,  and  sent  it  to  Augusta,  Georgia,  intending  to 
pay  the  net  profits  to  my  regiment ;  I  netted  §350  as 
profit  in  gold,  and  got  the  Victoria  coin  and  gave  one 
to  each  soldieress  as  far  as  I  could  find  them,  leaving 
three  or  four  unpaid,  whom  I  have  never  seen.  AVhen 
I  went  to  pay  Miss  Pinckney  and  Miss  Rutledge  they 
had  gotten  possession  of  their  house  on  the  Battery,  not 
very  long,  and  Miss  Pinckney  said  to  me,  "I  have  not 
had  money  enough  for  two  weeks  to  buy  a  broom." 
Up  to  the  war  she  was  the  richest  lady  in  South  Carolina. 
The  Victoria,  or  §5  gold-piece,  then  worth  S7.50,  green- 
backs, was,  therefore,  an  opportune  present. 

I  saw  a  few  Confederate  soldiers  have  §1.50  each  in 
silver,  which  they  said  was  part  of  their  monthly  pay, 
and  that  was  the  only  pay  I  ever  saw  them  have,  except 
paper  money. 

I  received  many  letters  from  my  regiment  during  and 
since  the  war,  and  as  no  composition  is  superior  to  la- 
dies' letters,  (if  they  would  not  add  postscripts),  I  have 
been  amused  and  instructed  by  them,  and  I  regret  I 
have  not  preserved  all ;  I  have  now  several  of  them, 
and  if  they  were  not  ladies'  letters  I  would  quote  them. 
I  should  take  Miss  Gelzer's  first  (she  is  now  Mrs.  Gue- 
rard,  which  is  almost  French,  for  wars.  But  I  won't  be 
hard  on  her,  as  she  was  engaged  to  be  married,  and 
sent  the  first  money  to  get  up  the  first  gun-boat  at 
Charleston,  and  had  much  to  do  with  the  great  fair  for 
funds  to  build  it,  hence  she  was  called  "  Gunboat  Sue," 
and  Mrs.  D.  S.  St'gs,  who  lived  opposite  Hibernian  Hall, 


168 

in  which  was  the  fair,  introduced  me  to  Miss  Gelzer,  but 
I  would  have  lost  her  name,  so  thej  wrote  it  and  pinned 
it  in  mv  hat. 


THE  GUN-BOAT  FAIR— HIBERNIAN  HALL. 


Mr.  Stocking  fretted  because  I  never  could  get  his 
name  right,  and  would  call  him  "stockings."  I  was  to 
escort  Miss  Sue  to  the  fair,  and  at  ten  o'clock,  Mr.  D.  S. 
Stockino;  was  to  come  and  relieve  me  and  escort  her 
to  his  house,  when  they  closed  the  fair  for  that  night.  I 
had  agreed  in  this  case,  to  go  to  bed  for  once  at  eleven 
instead  of  nine  o'clock.  Mr.  Stocking  came  not,  and  after 
waiting  for  him  till  eleven  P.  M.,  I  left  the  fair,  and 
when  I  crossed  the  street  and  went  to  his  parlor,  there 
he  was  on  a  Southern  lounge,  mellow.  I  called  him, 
in  spite,  Mr.  Stockings,  and  he  corrected  me  again, 
and  begged  I  should  come  the  next  night  and  help  him 
at  the  fair.  Yes,  I'll  do  it  to  get  my  revenge  out  of  Mr. 
Stockings.  He  was  correcting  me  as  I  went  down  stairs 
about  his  name,  and  as  I  get  up  at  four  A.  M.,  I  had  only 
three  hours  to  sleep.  So  after  I  dressed,  as  I  icas  to 
hreakj'mt  at  his  house,  I  sat  down  and  wrote  the  follow- 
ing lines  to  read  at  his  table.  I  had  been  a  country  store 
merchant,  he  a  city  school  teacher,  which  may  explain 
some  of  the  lines,  and  the  name  j^inncd  in  my  hat,  and 
Mrs.  Stocking's  splendid  grey  cat  which  she  fed  as  a  pet : 

Is'nt  it  Shocking,  I  could'nt  say  stocking  ? 

A  word  so  long  and  so  free, 
TVhen  the  word  hose,  stuck  under  my  nose. 

But  this  is  a  foible  in  me. 


"  CALAI.>=-MORALE."  169" 

The  philosopher  Kant  had  a  man  of  adamant, 

Tliat  served  up  his  paper  and  tea, 
The  paper  had  a  hard  name  he  never  did  tame. 

Though  pronounced  for  him  one — two — three. 
Queerer,  no  little  Stockings  at  table  ! 

GUN-BOAT    POETRY. 

"When  ^Ir.  and  Mrs.  S.  had  digested  the  stocking 
stanzas,  I  read  :  Well,  Miss  Sue, 

I've  joked  with  you,  and  smoked  with  you, 

And  had  you  in  my  hat ; 
I've  walked  with  you,  and  talked  with  you. 

And  flattered  the  grey  cat ; 
I've  chewed  with  you,  jewed  with  you, 

Been  bothered  with  your  name  ; 
I've  humored  you,  and  worried  you. 

But  like  you  all  the  same  ; 
I've  read  of  you,  been  fed  by  you. 

And  helped  you  with  your  shawl ; 
I've  been  praised  by  you,  and  crazed  by  you, 

And  kepi  up,  ivorsi  of  all ; 
I've  tried  to  leave,  and  grieve  you. 

But  cannot  get  away  ; 
You've  charmed  me,  and  disarmed  me, 

So,  what  can  I  do  but  stay  ? 

w.  H.  w.. 

Alas !  the  kaleidoscope  of  life. 

Her  father  was  a  Sea  Island  cotton  planter,  and  her 
sisters  all  had  plantations  on  the  Islands.  As  she  wrote 
a  beautiful  hand,  and  her  signature  was  put  on  my  list, 
I  wished  to  call  her  the  captain  of  my  Fills  des  Regi- 
ment, which  an  accidental  acquaintance  with  her  may- 
have  gotten  up.  The  next  year,  at  any  rate,  the 
Empress  Eugenie  thought  enough  of  her  j^hotograph 
and   General   Jackson's   to   have  her  own    and  that  of 


170  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

l^apoleon  placed  in  the  show  window  opposite  my 
•dining-room  seat,  where  they  remained,  for  months, 
tin  til  I  left  the  city. 

"  Stockings  "  remained  unfaithful,  and  I  sat  up  two 
other  nights,  and  became  so  sleepy  that  I  went  to  sleep 
at  the  tea-table  of  a  gentleman  "  in  Summerville  whilst 
•talking  to  his  ladies.  I  say  with  Sancho  Panza  '^blessed 
is  the  man  that  invented  sleep."  I  had  quite  a  number 
of  tickets  in  the  prize  fair,  and  the  first  time  I  saw  Miss 
Sue  at  Mr.  Stocking's,  I  gave  them  all  to  her,  and  she 
drew  what  was  said  to  be  the  second  prize  at  the  fair — 
a  huge  painting  of  a  Newfoundland  dog,  as  large  as  life, 
with  a  child  it  had  rescued  from  the  water,  lying  on  his 
fore  paws,  as  natural  as  life.  It  was  said  to  have  cost 
$500. 

She  married  during  the  w\ar.  After  the  war,  and  the 
loss  of  all  their  slaves,  their  lands  being  worthless,  she 
lived  in  Southwestern  Georgia  with  her  husland's  father. 
His  house  was  burned,  and  in  July,  1875,  she  was  living 
at  her  father's  old  homestead  on  the  coast  of  South  Caro- 
lina, as  sickly  and  deserted  as  the  coast  of  Africa.  She 
h  ad  three  children,  her  husband's  health  was  broken — he 
w^as  poorer  than  the  w^aiters,  but  not  as  well  contented. 
She  has  frequently  w^ritten  to  me,  and  I  advanced  her 
something,  and  at  last  I  sold  her  painting  for  a  small 
sum.  As  she  is  patient  and  brave  she  will  do  better 
than  the  majority  in  her  situation. 


Miss  Sue  North,  a  woman  of  about  her  contour,  but 
"English  features,  descended  from  the  North's  of  Eng- 
land, was  the  best  songstress  and  performer  on  the 
piano,  I  ever  knew,  except  Jenny  Lind.     I  have  heard 


"CALAIS-MORALE."  171 

her  at  home  daring  the  homhardment.  I  caused  her  to 
walk  four  miles,  a  hot  day  in  June,  to  gratify  her  wo- 
man's curiority  in  regard  to  a  little  rose  shrub,  the  "  mag- 
nolia fuscata,"  which  took  Dr.  Bachman's  five  guesses 
to  name. 

After  the  war,  I  heard  that  Miss  North  had  married  a 
Northern  captain  in  the  United  Navy,  and  had  gone  to 
the  Sandwich  Islands.  I  had  not  paid  her  the  "  vic- 
toria "  or  "  sovereign.'" 

AVhilst  in  Paris,  in  1867,  I  heard  she  had  returned. 
I  wrote  to  Charleston,  to  my  agent  there,  to  procure  a 
"  victoria  "  and  present  it  with  my  compliments  to  her 
baby  boy,  also  a  copy  of  the  following  lines  enclosed: 

'Tis  well  Miss  Sue,  to  punish  you 
For  being  a  little  wayward  ; 
I  won't  annoy,  but  wish  you  joy 
For  being  a  Mistress  Heyward. 

You'll  please  accept,  this  thuig  y'cleped, 
A  ''sovereign"  or  "  victoria;" 
And  may  your  reign,  ne'er  disclaim 
A  wife  without  a  victory. 

By  doing  this,  you'll  ne'er  miss 
Tlie  value  of  my  afiection  ; 
I  "  Fills  "  lose,  by  Hymen's  noose, 
But  it  adds  to  their  perfection. 

Give  me  to  say,  this  closes  pay 
Of  Fills  of  my  "Regiment;" 
Altho'  disbanded,  when  husbanded. 
It  tills  the  cup  of  my  content. 

Allow  me  to  add,  tho'  parting  be  sad, 

That  meeting  again  is  joy ; 

May  your  Hymen  cord  wear  as  light  as  the  air. 

And  your  next  baby  a  boy. 

Yours  truly,  ^v.  n.  w. 


172 

After  the  blockade,  and  during  the  war,  over  one 
hundred  thousand  bushels  of  corn  in  new  sacks,  were 
sent  bj  sea  to  Charleston  and  Savannah,  and  were  sold 
at  cost  at  eighty-live  cents  per  bushel,  including  sacks, 
when  the  last  cargo  had  sold  in  the  market,  loose  at  one 
dollar  and  twenty  cents  per  bushel,  and  was  in  much  de- 
mand. There  were  also  sent  to  Virginia  and  Xorth  Car- 
olina, ten  thousand  bushels  of  salt,  and  sold  at  fifteen  cents 
per  bushel ;  and  over  three  thousand  sacks  of  salt  were 
sold  at  seventy-five  cents  per  sack.  Much  of  the  salt 
was  sold  only  to  soldier's  wives,  and  the  corn  to  the 
benefit  of  the  planters;  and  all  of  these  articles,  by  and 
through  the  Fills  des  Regiment, 

I  have,  by  accident,  yet  many  of  my  Fills  letters  ;  but 
the  most  of  them  would  onl}^  remind  one  of  the  saying 
of  l^apoleon  the  First,  that  "  war  was  hell."  I  had  sent 
word,  and  written  to  such  of  my  Fills,  as  I  could  place,  to 
have  their  photographs  taken  to  give  me  one,  and  I  would 
pay  for  the  dozen.  I,  for  the  first  time  in  my  life,  had  that 
much  money  to  spare,  and  still  to  do  justice  to  the  poor 
and  the  rich  at  home.  Money  was  selling  in  the  streets 
of  Charleston,  at  five  per  cent,  a  month,  and  diamonds 
the  security  (1865.)  There  was  scarcely  any  money  in 
the  country,  and  photographers  could  get  work  only  in 
the  citv,  at  the  old  bouses.  In  that  wav  I  srot  Miss  Sue 
Gelzer's  picture. 

I  had  a  valentine  drawing  in  February,  1866,  at  Dr. 
Eachman's,  to  amuse  them  ;  and  I  got  the  Doctor,  who 
they  knew  would  not  cheat,  to  draw  the  prizes  from  the 
hat,  and  I  am  not  sure,  but  that  thing  gave  rise  to  the 
next  letter,  that  I  will  copy  here.  It  was  marked  Ar- 
thur.    I  have  no  note  of  my  letter  to  the  lady,  hence 


173 

mv  ignorance  of  its  import  or  the  date ;  yet  I  received 
the  two  following  notes,  far  apart,  from  and  on  acconnt 
of  Miss  Louisa  Arthur  : 

June  10,  18GG. 
^y.  II.  AVessox  : 

Dear    Sir — Miss    M.    L.    Arthur    is    at    present    in 
Auburn,  Xew  York. 

A^erv  respectful! V, 

C.  ARTHUR. 


On  the  19th  otMuly,  1SG6,  I  received  the  following 
letter  from  her  : 

Camdex,  S.  C,  July  19,  1866. 
Mr.  Wessox: 

Dear  Sir — I  have  just  returned  from  Xew  York,  and 
iiud  jour  favor  of  so  long  ago  awaiting  my  arrival.  I 
hasten  to  return  thanks  to  you  for  your  great  kindness. 
My  draw,  indeed,  was  a  luck}'  one,  but  my  heart  grows 
sad  when  I  remember  my  beautiful  idol  is  unknow^n. 

You  must  hasten  to  relieve  my  vanity.  I  was  in 
•Charleston  last  week,  and  endeavored  to  discover  your 
face  (I  never  "was  in  the  city  of  a  July)  amongst  the 
many,  but  all  in  vain. 

Respectfully, 

"^  LOUISE   ARTHUR. 


I  suppose  her  name  is  "  Maria  Louise,"  and  by  my 
not  being  in  Charleston  I  missed  her  photograph,  and 
she  missed  her  errand. 

Anna  Mortimer  was  a  patient,  sweet  girl,  in  her  teens. 
Her  uncle,  who  was  the  richest  rice  planter  in  the  State, 
iind  who  was  childless,  had  equipped,  at  his  own  ex- 


174  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

pense,  one  or  two  companies  for  the  war;  but  the  war 
entirely  ruined  his  estate,  except  a  small  amount  which 
his  wife  had  taken  to  Europe,  at  its  commencement. 

The  war  also  completely  rained  Anna's  father.  His 
property  consisted  chiefly  of  bank  and  railroad  stocks. 
He  was  a  refugee,  and  lived  very  poorly  in  Xewberry, 
South  Carolina.  I  suppose  Anna  had  her  photograph 
taken  at  my  request,  and  the  five-dollar  gold  piece  I  gave 
her  is  also  mentioned  in  his  letter  about  her  death. 
He  told  me  how  she  had  worked  to  earn  sugar  and  tea 
for  her  invalid  mother  and  father ;  how  she  bought 
peas  with  some  of  the  gold  I  had  given  her,  to  subsist 
on,  and  but  for  the  photograph  I  gave  her,  he  should 
have  had  no  likeness  of  her. 

Newberry,  S.  C,  June,  1866. 
W.  H.  Wesson,  Esq.  : 

Dear  Sir — Long  ere  this  reaches  you,  you  will  have 
heard  of  our  direful  calamity. 

But,  my  dear  friend,  allow  us  to  tender  to  you  again 
our  heartfelt  gratitude  for  giving  us  the  onhj  outlines  we 
have  of  that  beautiful  and  beloved  face,  not  only  a 
comfort  to  us,  but  her  numerous  friends  and  admirers. 
May  God  bless  you  and  yours  for  it.  The  gold  you 
gave  her,  she,  noble  girl !  purchased  peas,  which  lasted 
us  three  months  in  our  adversity.  It  gave  her  great 
pleasure  to  contribute  to  our  comfort.  When  that  was 
out,  Mr.  Johnstone  gave  her  law  papers  to  copy,  and 
that  clothed  her  and  feed  us.  We  shall  never  forget 
her  beaming  countenance  when  she  brought  to  her  sick 
mother  a  pound  of  tea,  out  of  her  own  earnings,  and 
other  comforts.     Often  daylight  would  catch  her  at  her 


"CALAIS-MORALE."  175> 

writing,  without  one  murmur;  our  little  school  would 
claim  her  then  for  the  balance  of  the  day.  She  is  now 
where  the  weary  is  at  rest,  and  tlie  wicked  cease  to 
trouble.  May  God  s^ive  her  rest  from  her  labors,  and 
bless  you  for  your  kindness  to  her. 

Yours,  in  sorrow, 

THOMAS  MORTIMER. 


I  can  hardly  say  why,  but  I  met  this  meek-looking- 
little  miss  on  the  way  to  her  school,  in  Xewberry,  and, 
knowing  of  their  destitution,  I  gave  her  the  gold  and 
told  her  to  get  her  photograph  taken,  at  my  expense,, 
and  give  it  to  her  sick  mother.  The  gold  sent  me  by 
Mr.  F.  was  as  opportune,  as  this  proved  to  be,  and  he- 
was  the  main  cause  that  I  had  it  then  to  give. 

Laura  A.  "Wesson  was  in  her  teens,  and  engaged  to 
be  married  to  a  well-known  and  large  merchant  of 
Charleston,  S.  C.  She  was  the  "  best-natured,  most 
patient,  and  sweetest  girl  that  I  ever  knew,  and  had 
the  sweetest  voice.  She  always  sang  "Ben  Bolt"  and 
"  Katy's  Secret "  at  the  piano,  in  a  tone  which  was  omi- 
nous, and  in  a  way  I  never  heard  imitated  by  any  other 
person.  She  was  never  sick  in  her  life.  We  and  her 
sister  Mary  were  on  our  way  to  Wainsboro,  Sumter  and 
Charleston,  when  we  met  the  news  of  the  burning  of 
Columbia,  and  of  General  Sherman's  raid,  at  High 
Point,  where  we  staid  three  months.  Laura  contracted 
a  fever  from  the  soldiers  in  the  hospital,  and  died  and 
was  buried  there.  An  account  of  her  coffin  and  burial, 
April,  1865,  has  been  before  written  in  this  book;  but 
a  piece  of  poetry  I  penciled  at  her  sister  Mary's  grave,, 
some  years  before,  would  be  meet  for  her. 


176 

Her  sister  Mary,  nearly  fifteen  years  old,  had  never 
been  sick  in  her  life,  but  contracted  a  disease  in  Peters- 
burg which  killed  her.  I  thought,  and  I  have  heard 
others  declare,  she  was  the  most  beautiful  person  they 
ever  saw. 

Would'nt  it  be  meet  to  say  here  lies  our  Mary.  When 
she  was  dying  she  asked  her  teacher  to  sing  ''I  would  not 
live  always,  I  ask  not  to  stay."  She  was  fourteen  years, 
seven  months  and  three  days  old. 

Miss  Sallie  Sanders  died  young  and  unmarried.  She 
was  the  Fillie  that  knit  the  fifty-three  pairs  of  socks  for 
the  soldiers.  Nearly  all  of  the  balance  of  the  Regiment 
who  were  marriagable  are  married,  and  as  I  have  not 
been  to  South  Carolina  for  years,  I  have  lost  sight  of  all 
but  one,  Eebecca  Ann  Hicks,  my  cousin,  and  of  my 
age ;  she  never  chose  to  marry,  and  is  said  to  be  one 
amongst  the  most  amiable  w^oraen  in  South  Carolina. 
I  got  a  letter  from  her  recently.  Thus  ends  that  which 
never  happened  before  in  a  war,  which  grew  out  of  a 
"  few  words  fitly  spoken,"  and  resulted  in  great  good  to 
many,  and  no  loss  to  any  one,  and  taught  lessons  in  the 
volume  of  human  nature  that  could  be  learned  in  no 
other  school. 

I  will  close  by  an  account  of  the  sad  results  of  the  war 
upon  the  estates  of  three  widows  amongst  my  Fills : 
All  of  them  owned  fine  Sea  Island  estates  ;  one  of  them 
had  only  one  child  whom  she  educated  in  New  York,  and 
with  whom  she  lived  at  school.  Her  income  was  $10,000 
per  year.  I  saw  her  emigrate  to  a  Western  State  with 
scarcely  money  for  her  trip.  Another  had  three  chil- 
dren and  had  to  seek  the  alms-house.  The  other  had 
•several  children  and  went  quite  poor  to  the  West. 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  177 

I  have  good  evidence  that  the  Fills  des  liegimeiit  was 
composed  of  good  material,  and  that  they  became  more 
in    earnest    after  becoming  members  of  this  company. 
It  would  take  a  book  to  relate  what  tliey  did  for  and  on 
account  of  the  war.     I  will  try  and  condense  some  of 
the  things  wliich  some  of  them  either  did  or  caused  to  be 
done:     More  than  a   hundred  thousand  bushels  of  corn 
were    placed   in    Cliarleston,   Savannah    and  Augusta, 
much  of  it  in  new  sacks,  and  sold  without  profit,  when 
corn   was  very  scarce,  at  thirty  cents  per  bushel  (sacks 
included)  less  than  the  last  corn  sold  in  those  markets 
for,  and  for  four  months  the  price  of  corn  was  kept  at 
the  same  price,  fixed  by  the  owner,  as  the  newspapers  of 
that  date  will  show  and  prove.     Thousands  of  bushels  of 
-salt  was  procured  from  the  salt  works — ten  thousand 
bushels  from  Cadiz,  Spain,  and  several  thousand  sacks 
sold  to    benefit    soldiers'    wives,  at   a  cost   of   sixteen 
cents  per  bushel,  and  seventy-five  cents  per  sack.     De- 
layed and  lialf-famished  soldiers  were  fed  at  Kingsville. 
Sacks  of  bibles  were  given  to  soldiers.     The  life  of  one 
daughter  was  lost  by  three  months'  attendance  in  a  hos- 
pital, at  High  Toint,  N.  C;    another  daughter  attended 
hospitals  during  the  war,  each  and  every  one  of  them 
made  themselves    useful  in   some  way  during  the  war. 
I  never  knew  or  heard  of  a  single  instance  among  them 
of  that  selfishness  so  degrading  and  common  with  men 
in  time  of  war,  and  I  am  pleased  to  add  that  a  majority 
of  the  Fills  des  Regiment  that  were  single  and  agreed 
to  remain  so  during  the  war,  were  not  only  true   and 
faithful  to  their  promises,  but  have  since  married  well, 
and  have   added   many  sons  and  daughters  to  replace 
some    of  the    victims  of  the    war,  and   further  does  it 
prove,   that  however    fancvful  and   liglit  some  projects 

12 


178  "  CALAIS-MORALE. 


may  appear  at  their  commencement,  when  honesty  and        \ 
good  intentions  are  the  mainsprings,  much  good  with- 
out  shame  will  he  the  consequent  results.  j 


ARROWS  OF  WISDOM. 

God  heals,  and  the  physicians  hath  the  thanks. 
Hell  is  full  of  good  meanings  and  wishings. 
Our  own  actions   are   our  security,  not  others'  judg- 
ments. 

Think  of  ease,  hut  icork  on. 
He  that  lies  long  abed,  his  estate  feels  it. 
Whether  you  boil  snow  or  pound  it,  you  can  have  but 
w^ater  of  it. 

God  complains  not,  but  doth  what  is  fitting. 

A  diligent  scholar,  and  the  master  is  paid. 

Milk  says  to  wine  :  Welcome,  friend. 

They  that  know  one  another,  salute  afar  oil'. 

AVhere  there  is  no  honor,  there  is  no  grief. 

Where  the  drink  goes  in,  there  the  wit  goes  cut. 

Alms  never  make  poor. 

Giving  much  to  the  poor  doth  enrich  a  man's  store. 

It  takes  much  from  the  account,  to  which  his  sins  doth 
amount. 

Ill  comes  in  by  ells,  and  goes  out  by  inches. 

Whose  house  is  of  glass  must  not  throw  stones  at 
another. 

If  the  old  dog  bark,  he  gives  counsel. 

The  tree  that  grows  slowly,  keeps  itself  for  another. 

I  wept  when  I  was  born,  and  every  day  shows  why. 

lie  that  looks  not  before,  finds  himself  behind. 


"CALAIS-MORALE."  179 


War  Reminescences 


i 


HAD  cast  my  bread  upon  the  waters  and  fire  dn_ 
ring  the  war;  had  invested  my  money  in  cotton  in 
South  Carolina,  in  various  phices,  to  help  [)hinters  to 
pay  their  debts,  and  wouhJ  buy  only  a  few  bales  from  each, 
advising  them  to  keep  as  much  cotton  as  they  could  un- 
til after  the  war,  and  even  should  it  be  burnt,  the  ashes, 
for  manure,  would  be  worth  as  much  as  the  money  cur- 
rent, as  history  always  repeated  itself.  I  was  no  pro- 
phet; many  were  benefited,  but  the  majority  would 
sell.  I  had  one  hundred  bales  in  the  hands  of  four 
planters,  my  kinsmen,  burned  by  General  Potter  and 
his  dark  troops,  on  the  19th  day  of  April,  1865,  after 
Gen'l  Lee's  surrender,  and  the  war  virtually  over. 

I  paid  my  kinsfolks  eight  cents,  gold,  for  a  small  por- 
tion of  each  of  their  crops  to  pay  their  debts,  and  to 
hold  at  my  risk  until  the  war  was  over.  Gen.  Sherman, 
w^ho  swept  everything,  missed  this  cotton  by  a  few  miles, 
a  river  and  swamp  intervening.  I  lost  fifty  bales  in 
Cheraw,  South  Carolina,  which  I  had  bought  at  same 
time,  under  same  circumstances,  at  about  same  cost. 

On  the  evacuation  of  Charleston  the  troops  went 
through  Cheraw;  there  was  a  fire;  many  houses  and 
much  cotton  was  burned.  I  have  not  been  there,  but 
heard  my  cotton  was  gone,  though  the  shed  under  which 
it  was  stored  was  not  burned.  I  had  a  few  bales  left  in 
Sumter,  the  halance  in  Newberry  and  Laurens. 


180 

Through  a  Fillie's  letter  the  officers  of  the  troops  which 
held  Xewberry  after  the  war  gave  me  extra  privileges 
with  my  cotton.  Some  of  their  letters  I  liave,  and  I 
shall  neither  forget  the  General,  or  Colonel  Tyler,  or 
Lieut.  Looniis,  nor  the  risk  and  danger  those  had  to  in- 
cur that  owned  cotton. 

I  wrote  to  President  Johnson  for  a  pardon  and  he 
sent  it  to  me,  though  he  never  saw  or  heard  of  me  be- 
fore my  letter.  I  never  had  any  military  let  or  hin- 
xlrance  aboVit  any  of  my  cotton  or  property. 

I  had  paid  the  same  attention  to  the  wounded  and 
^sick  Federal  troops,  at  High  Point,  giving  them  butter- 
milk and  things  for  the  sick  which  I  could  beg  or  buy 
of  the  Friends  or  Quakers  residing  near  that  place.  1 
was  treated  with  deference  by  the  commanding  officer 
who,  with  the  troops,  held  that  place  several  days. 
He  presented  me  with  a  free  ticket  for  myself  and  daugh- 
ter on  the  railroad  home  and  to  reiiirn  to  South  Caro- 
lina, with  special  attention  where  the  road  was  torn  up 
s.i  Raleigh,  had  a  guard  kept  constantly  at  the  door  of 
ray  sick  daughter,  and  saluted  me  when  he  left.  I  never 
asked  his  name. 

I  had  a  ship  stopped  in  Charleston,  by  Mr.  Calicut. 
One  of  my  friends  that  had  cotton  on  board,  perhaps 
may  have  had  something  to  do  wnth  the  blockade  run- 
ning during  the  ^var,  was  put  to  much  cost  and  trouble, 
and  the  writer's  deposition  taken,  and  his  disposition 
tested  in  this  transaction. 

I  shipped  in  September,  1865,  from  Charleston,  a  con- 
siderable lot  of  my  unburnt  cotton,  and  got  forty-six 
cents  in  gold,  in  Liverpool,  for  it. 

I  went  to   Charleston,  in  November,  on  my  way  to 


"  CALAIS-ilORALE.*'  181 

Florida,  and  helped  uianj  factors  to  pay  cotton  taxes,, 
and  to  repair  ot*  soipe  of  the  churches.  There  were 
no  banks  or  brokers  in  the  city,  and  money  selling  at 
five  per  cent,  per  month  on  the  street,  with  fii-st-class 
security. 

I  was  informed  in  December,  that  I  had  placed  to  ray 
credit,  by  new  cotton  factors,  §50,000  in  gold,  in  the 
bank  of  Liverpool,  and  §200,000  with  Messrs.  Lees  k 
AValler,  New  York,  which,  with  about  §100,000  of  my 
own  cash,  and  a  lirst-class  credit,  I  stood  the  cash  man 
of  that  once  wealthy  city,  then  perfectly  prostrated  in 
every  department  of  business. 

I  sent  the  last  vessel  that  went  from  Charleston  to 
Xorfolk,  via  Cape  Hatteras,  and  through  the  Dismal 
Swamp  Canal,  loaded  with  rice  ;  the  most  of  which  was 
sold  to  the  Confederate  Government  at  cost,  and  several 
casks,  which  I  sent  to  Pulaski  county,  Virginia,  with 
twenty-five  bags  of  Rio  coflee,  which  found  their  way  to 
Lynchburg,  to  feed  the  numerous  soldiers  there,  sick 
with  measles. 

The  citizens  of  Pulaski  county  used  all  the  coffee  at 
cost. 

The  vessel  returned,  loaded  with  corn,  and  had  to  put 
into  Georgetown,  South  Carolina,  on  account  of  the 
blockade  at  Charleston,  and  fed  the  liungry  people  there. 
The  captain,  a  preacher  and  a  good  nmn,  brought  a  load 
of  rosin,  which  made  his  fortune,  if  he  did  not  sell  it  toa 
quickly.  This  captain  was  a  Mary  lander,  and  did  so 
much  that  assisted  the  Confederates,  I  wish  I  had  space 
to  tell  it.  He  made  a  trip  for  me  to  the  AV^est  Indies 
during  the  declaration  of  the  blockade,  and  took  a  load 
of  molasses   and   ten   thousand  oran2;es   to   Petcrsburir.. 


182  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

direct,  drawing  nine  feet  of  water,  with  a  fine  palmetto 
liag,  he  asked  me  to  give  him,  flying  at  his  mast,  which 
was  noticed  in  the  papers,  which  I  have  at  the  present 
time. 

I  wrote  Mr.  Buchanan  to  recall  the  man-of-war  sent 
to  Charleston,  or  it  would  certainly  cause  war.  Another 
vessel,  the  "  Judith,"  I  had  loaded  for  the  West  Indies, 
met  the  man-of-war,  and  the  pert  language  used  was 
printed  in  the  New  York  Times,  and  sent  to  me  by  some 
unknown  person.  Of  some  forty  vessels,  chartered  at 
Norfolk,  Va.,  during  the  sixty  dajV  declaration  of  block- 
ade, and  the  three  thousand  ton  ship  Princess,  (I  then 
resided  in  Charleston  and  passing  through  on  my  way 
to  the  Hampton  Female  College,  to  bring  two  daugh- 
ters from  the  colleo:e  before  it  should  fall  into  the  hands 
of  the  Federals,  as  I  believed  it  would  soon  do,)  and  corn 
being  very  scarce  in  Charleston,  and  no  vessels  to  be  had 
to  go  South,  lest  they  should  be  seized,  I  gave  security 
for  their  safe  return,  and  chartered  all  for  the  round 
trip,  at  my  risk,  twenty  to  thirty  vessels ;  some  brigs  and 
large  vessels,  that  carried  ten  thousand  and  fifteen  thou- 
sand bushels  each  of  corn,  fur  Charleston  or  Savannah, 
as  the}'  chose.  The  buoys  removed  and  light-houses  put 
out,  all  made  the  quickest  trips  on  record,  with  no  dam- 
age. All  of  the  captains  proved  faithfid  with  their 
return  cargoes,  wliilst  of  three  vessels  from  Baltimore 
on  speculation  to  said  ports,  two  were  lost,  one  put  into 
Norfolk  da tn aged,  and  I  bought  the  dry  corn  of  her 
cargo. 

A  Norfolk  house  sent  one  vessel  to  Savannah,  on 
speculation.  The  captain  took  his  return  cargo  to 
Penobscot,  Maine,  at  their  loss.  My  risks  were  fifty 
times  greater,   and   cargoes   very   valuable,    besides    the 


*■  CALAIS-MORALE."  183 

vessels  I  seut  to  the  AV^est  Indies  ;  yet,  all  were  faithful 
and  quick,  aud  I  had  au  unusual  compliment  from  the 
■owners  of  the  old  Xew  York  l\icket  Line  to  Norfolk, 
after  my  victory  over  the  Xew  York  steamships — the 
Roanoke,  Jamestown  and  Y^orktowii.  Many  thousands 
of  yards  of  cotton-bagging  were  sent  to  Savannah,  and 
sold  at  eleven  cents  per  yard,  which  would  have  laid 
over  in  Philadelphia;  besides,  many  boxes  of  soap,  and 
tons  of  large  chains,  which  were  afterward  brought  to 
Charleston  to  chain  logs  together  to  fortify  that  harbor. 

I  assert  that  the  man  wlio  has  had  nothing  to  do  with 
politics  and  arms,  in  times  of  war  (with  his  mind  clear 
and  wdll  properly  directed),  can  do  a  vast  deal  of  good 
in  many  ways,  and  things,  witli  his  pen,  his  money,  and 
his  credit,  particularly,  when  profit  and  selfishness  are 
not  the  basis  of  his  actions,  and  with  those  intentions 
that  '-good  luck"  will  attend  all  of  his  ventures,  and 
after  awhile  he  will  receive,  even  in  this  world,  a  reward 
far  more  valuable  than  money.  The  thousands  who  had 
bread  to  eat  by  my  incidental  trips,  who  otherwise  would 
have  been  without,  w^as  a  far  more  pleasant  recollection 
than  the  immense  gains  of  money  which  I  had  it  in  my 
power  to  realize. 

I  have  ever  refused  to  speculate  on  the  necessities  of 
my  fellow  men,  or  receive  usury  on  money,  and  at  the 
close  of  the  war  I  realized  the  promises  made  in  the 
Bible  for  such  conduct,  and  although  I  met  losses  of 
property,  in  company  of  those  who  acted  the  contrary, 
yet  my  cup  was  full,  even  running  over,  with  filthy 
lucre,  and  I  helped  many  planters,  utterly  ruined  by  the 
war,  to  support  their  families,  and  have  heard  them  say 
the    exhilerating    words,    in    passing    up  Broad  street^ 


184  "  CALAIS-MORALE/' 

Charleston,  though  strangers  to  rae,  '^  You  set  me  up.' 
^? hat's  the  use  of  money  when  we  are  in  the  grave  ? 


Mayor's  Office,  Charleston,      ) 
February  18,  1S61.  5 

Pass  Mr.  W.  II.  AYcsson  and  servant  to  Xewberry,  S. 
C,  and  back,  as  often  as  he  pleases. 

CHARLES  MACBETH, 

Mai/o)\. 
W.  H.  Wesson. 


:\ 


Headquarters  Pur.  Forces, 

Charleston.  S.  C,  April  23,  1861. 

B.    C.    Pressly,  W.    H.    AVesson  and  ten    ladies  are 
permitted  to  visit  Z^lorris  Island  to-morrow. 

By  order  of  Brigadier-General  Beauregard, 

S.  D.  LEE, 
Capt.  H.  31.,  A.  q.  M.  G. 


THE  PALMETTO  FLAG. 


"  Arrived,  the  fine  schooner  T.  C,  Hughtel,  Captain 
Ridgeway,  in  harbor  yesterday  afternoon,  in  twelve 
days  from  Havana.  Cuba.  In  addition  to  her  cargo  of 
molasses,  she  brings  some  seven  thousand  large,  lucious- 
looking  oranges  and  a  quantity  of  fine  bananas,  all 
consigned  to  Messrs  Mcllwaine,  Son  &  Co. 

"  She  sailed  up  the  river  in  gallant  style,  with  a  beauti- 
ful Palmetto  flag  floating  proudly  from  her  mast.  Let 
our  citizens  keep  a  sharp  look-out,  not  on  the  flag,  but 


1S5- 

for  the  oranges  and  bannas,  if  they  wish  to  secure  some- 
thing delicious  in  the  way  of  fruits." — Petersburg  Ex- 
press ^  April,  1861. 


CJIAPvLESTOX— ITS    LADIES,   &c. 

The  cHmate  of  Charleston  in  Spring,  (and  it  is  a  long 
one)  is  the  Paradise  of  flowers.  The  ladies,  too,  have  a 
soft  voice,  and  such  taste  for  dress,  music  and  conver- 
sation, with  the  grace  and  dignity  of  the  Persian,  when 
w\alking,  that  I  am  sure  some  of  my  Fills  would  com- 
pare, in  these  things,  as  well  as  female  courage,  with  any 
people,  and  then  bear  adversity,  poverty  and  hunger, 
with  less  complaint  than  men. 


WITCHCRAFT    OF   WOMEN. 


I  want  to  tell  you  a  secret :  The  way  to  make  your- 
self pleasing  to  others  is  to  show  that  you  care  for  them. 
The  whole  world  is  like  the  miller  at  Mansfield  "  who 
cares  for  nobod}' — no,  not  he — because  nobody  cared 
for  him,"  and  the  whole  world  will  serve  you  the  same  if 
you  give  them  the  same  cause.  Let  everyone,  therefore, 
see  that  you  do  care  for  them,  by  sliowing  them  what 
Sterne  calls  the  small  sweet  courtesies,  in  which  there  is 
no  parade  ;  whose  voice  is  so  still  to  please,  and  which 
manifest  themselves  by  tender  and  affectionate  looks,  and 
little  acts  and  attentions — giving  others  the  preference  in 
every  little  enjoyment  at  the  table,  in  the  field,  walking, 
sitting  or  standing.  This  is  the  spirit  that  gives  to  your 
time  of  life,  and  to  your  sex,  their  sweetest  charms.  It 
constitutes  the  sum  total  of  all  the  witchcraft  of  women.. 


186  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

Let  the  world  see  that  your  first  care  is  for  yourself,  and 
you  will  have  the  solitude  of  the  Upas  tree  around  you 
in  the  same  way,  by  the  emanation  of  a  poison,  which 
kills  all  the  juices  of  affection  in  its  neighborhood.  Such 
^  girl  may  be  admired  for  her  understanding  and  ac- 
-complishments,  but  she  will  never  be  beloved. 

The  seat  of  love  can  never  grow  but  under  the  warm 
:and  gentle  influence  of  kind  feelings  and  affectionate 
manners. 

Vivacity  goes  a  great  way  in  all  young  persons.  It 
calls  attention  to  her  who  displays  it,  and  if  these  be 
found  associated  with  a  generous  sensibility,  its  execution 
is  irresistible. 

On  the  contrary,  if  it  .be  found  in  alliance  with  a 
cold,  haughty,  selfish  heart,  it  produces  no  further  effect, 
except  an  adverse  one. 

Attend  to  this,  my  daughter.  It  flows  from  a  heart 
that  feels  for  you  all  a  parent  can  feel,  and  not  without 
the  hope  which  constitutes  the  parent's  highest  happiness. 
May  God  protect  and  bless  you. 

^WILLIAM  WIRT, 

To  his  daughter. 
January  25,  1852. 


Is^OTES  FROM  LETTERS  TO  PRESIDENT  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES. 


A.  Johnson,  FresH  of  U.  S.: 

1  have  written  to  you  three  times,  in  my  crude  man- 
ner; first  in  October,  18G5,  that  you  would  pardon  me 
-for   sympathizing   with  my  unfortunate  countrymen  in 


*'  CALAIS-MORALE."  187 

the  late  war,  which  had  consumed  over  twenty  thousand 
doHars  worth  of  my  cotton,  after  General  Lee's  surren- 
der, when  the  war  had  been  virtually  concluded. 

Suppose  the  Federal  General  Potter  and  his  dark 
troops  had  not  heard  of  the  end,  in  the  big  swamps  of 
South  Carolina,     lie  burnt  none  after  this  of  mine. 

The  pardon  came  at  the  cost  of  three  cents.     Allow  • 
me  here  to  thank  you. 

My  second  letter  was  from  Charleston,  South  Carolina, 
to  tell  yon  that  I  had  faith  that  you  would  veto  the 
Freedman's  Bureau  Bill,  and  stand  your  hand  vs.  Radi- 
calism, and  tliat  if  they  beat  you,  we  would  hand  down 
your  name  to  posterity. 

My  third  letter  was  from  Charleston,  South  C^irolina. 
In  it  I  said  that  I  knew  you  were  a  firm  man,  and  when 
there  was  a  will  there  was  a  way.  I  tohl  you  about  the 
tVeedmen,  and  farming  statistics.  (1  was  then  engaged 
in  helping  the  Sea  Island  farmers,  and  those  on  the  coast 
also).  I  told  you  to  take  the  tax  off  cotton,  and  put  it 
on  '-whiskey" — to  benefit  the  negro  in  two  ways.  Per- 
haps the  misrule  of  the  negro  was  due  to  the  agents  you 
had  sent  to  the  States.  Misrule,  misguided  fanatics,  bad 
seasons,  thefts,  catterpillers  and  high  taxes,  had  com- 
pleted the  ruin  of  many  worthy  men  and  their  families. 

The  writer  had  over  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  worth 
of  Sea  Island  cotton  stolen  on  Edisto  Island,  in  1S6G,  and 
sold,  almost  without  fear  of  punishment,  to  Northern  stran- 
gers who  put  up  store  and  macliines,  and  bought  cotton 
of  my  laborers  at  will.  This  was  a  little  more  than  all 
of  niy  profits,  which  profits  when  the  contracts  were 
written,  were  to  be  bestowed  by  me  on  the  widows  and 
orphans  of   soldiers,  as    my    letters  to  my  agents  (now 


188  "  CALAIS-MOEALE." 

extant),  can  prove.  Tliej  will  get  nothing,  and  the 
writer  closes  these  operations  at  a  loss.  "  I  never  give 
up  the  ship."  I  am  here  in  this  great  city  of  Paris,  the 
first  real  leisure  of  my  life.  I  worked  with  my  former 
slaves  daily  for  four  months,  up  to  the  8th  of  August, 
1868,  when  I  left  home  for  this  city,  and  left  them,  the 
only  portion  of  the  colored  population  that  I  knew  of  in 
condition  to  expect  they  couhi  support  themselves.  I 
discharged  a  duty,  and  did  not  think  lit  to  remain  lon- 
ger a  slave  to  my  former  slaves.  I  declared  my  freedom 
when  I  arrived  in  this  city. 

On  my  way  I  was  sorry  to  hear  many  of  your  fornier 
friends  say  that  they  did  not  think  3'ou  had  the  back-hone 
to  stand  in  your  then  trying  position.  I  expressed  my 
faith  in  you  (I  had  never  seen  you).  II.  AY.  Lee,  bishop 
of  Iowa,  was  on  our  steamer,  the  city  of  Washington, 
and  introduced  himself  to  me  on  board  the  ship,  and 
offered  to  pray  and  preach  too,  whenever  I  wished,  if  I 
wbuld  get  the  Captain's  permission  on  our  voyage  out, 
which  added  no  little  to  its  pleasures.  I  am  strongly 
inclined  not  to  return  but  once  more  to  our  woe-begone 
land,  if  your  impeachers  are  successful.-  Barb  and  rivet 
that  iron  will  of  yours;  trust  in  God,  and  all  will  be 
right.  I  sav/  many  who  sympathized  with  your  situa- 
tion. *> 

I  do  not  understand  the  French  lanoruasje.  I  am  much- 
mistaken  if  I  mistake  England  and-France,  as  I  lost  all 
the  money  I  made  in  186G  for  the  widows  and  orphans- 
of  soldiers,  and  saw  an  Englishman  in  Liverpool,  witii 
a  paper,  with  nine  ladies  of  Charleston  signed  to  a  peti- 
tion to  get  up  a  respectable  "work  house"  for  the  same.. 
T  gave  my  mite.  I  then  wrote  to  him  from  Rouen  for  a 
copy  ot  this  paper,   intending  at  my  first  leisure  to   re* 


*'  CALAIS-MORALE.''  189 

jjjlace  some  of  their  lost  property.  I  have  encouragino^ 
notice  from  the  Emperor  in  regard  to  their  necessity. 
Can  you  8[)are  a  mite  for  this  tiling,  and  enclose  to  W. 
O.  Bee  k  Co.,  Cliarlcston,  South  Carolina. 

1  know  you  will  excuse  my  dictational  style  as  that  of 
a  man  that  has  worked  his  own  way  in  the  world,  and 
who  has  a  hard  head,  but  a  soft  heart. 

AV.  ]!.  AVESSOX. 


COPY   OF    PETITIOX    SEXT    TO    A.   JOIIXSOX 
AXD  THE   EMPEROPu' 


An  appeal,  in  aid  of  the  mothers,  widows,  and 
children  of  deceased  soldiers  of  the  late  Confederate 
States,  enclosed  to  me  at  Paris  : 

The  undersigned,  a  committee  of  ladies,  propose  to 
establish,  in  the  city  of  Charleston,  South  C^irtdina,  a 
home  for  the  mothers,  widows,  and  dangliters  of 
•deceased  soldiers,  who  may  be  in  destitut(3  circum- 
stances. The  large  number  of  females  and  children, 
■who  have  been  reduced  to  the  extremity  of  want  by  the 
misfortunes  of  the  late  war,  render  such  an  institution 
not  only  a  meritorious  charity,  but  almost  an  absolute 
necessity.  If  our  affairs  were  now  properous,  or  even 
promising,  there  would  not  be  so  much  occasion  for 
such  an  institution.  There  can  be  no  class  of  people 
more  mentorious  than  those  whom  this  institution  is 
intended  to  benefit — virtuous  women,  w^ho  have  seen 
better  days,  and  helpless  chihlren,  whose  only  heritage 
is  want;  whose  only  crime  is  that  they  are  the    wives, 


190  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

widows  or  children  of  men  who  have  given  their 
lives  for  a  cause  which  they  believed  to  be  that  of  jus- 
tice and  freedom. 

(Signed) 

Mrs.  p.  C.  Gilliard,        Mrs.  Wm.  Ravenel, 
Miss  E.  Palmer,  Mrs.  Geo.  Robinson, 

Mrs.  Willam  Mikel,         Mrs.  M.  A.  Sxowden, 
Mrs.  D.  E.  Huger,  Mrs.  C.  Fitzsimmoxs, 

Miss  Matilda  Middleton. 

Any  contributions  will  be  thankfully  received  and 
forwarded  by  James  M.  Calder,  care  Calder  &  Rogers, 
Liverpool  Chambles,  Titheborn  street,  Liverpool. 

On  the  back  of  this  printed  paper,  enclosed  to  me  in 
Paris,  by  Mr.  James  M.  Calder,  was  entered  the  follow- 
ing subscriptions: 

Thomas  Cordes,  ^ICO.       Mrs.  Mary  Cordes,  £20. 

W.  H.  Wesson,       10.       James  Adger,    .    .       5. 

James  Calder   .  5.       John  Calder,    .    .        5. 

Mrs.  E.  F.  Weston,  £5. 

I  was  not  to  receive  contributions  from  either  the 
Emperor  or  President,  as  they  had  directions  on  the 
paper  where  to  send  their  gifts.  However,  I  received 
a  letter  from  W.  C.  Bee  &  Co.,  stating  that  they  had 
gotten  the  asylum  under  way;  that  Mrs.  Snowden,  the 
first  lady  on  the  committee,  had  brought  them  thi-ee 
thousand  dollars  to  deposit  as  surplus  funds,  and  that 
they  had  received  one  thousand  dollars  from  Wasliing- 
ton  City. 


"CALAIS-MORALE."  191 

I  received  a  letter  from  President  Johnson  in  Paris^ 
as  copied  below.     The  original  I  have : 

[envelope.] 

Care  of 
American  Legation. 

From  the  President  <»f   the  U.  S^ 
R.  MOIIROW, 

i^eeretary. 
Leo-ation  des  Stat  Uni.^^,  L'Ameriqne,  in  Paris. 

W.  11.  WESSON,  Esq., 

Hotel  de  Lille  et  Albion, 

Parls. 
[lettek.] 

Executive  Mansion, 
Washington,  D.  C,  January  11,  1868. 

W.  H.  Wesson,  Paris,  France  : 

Sir—1  am  directed  by  the  President  to  acknowledge 
the  receipt  of,  and  to  express  to  you  his  thanks  for, 
your  letter  of  the  17th  ultimo. 

I  have  the  honer  to  be,  with  great  respect. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

P.  MOPvROAV, 

U.  S.  A. 


High  Point,  N.  C,  April  12,  3865. 

Mr.  W.  11.  Wesson  spent  a  few  months  in  this  placo 
during  the  last  winter  and  spring,  and  was  instant,  in 
season  and  out  of  season,  in  ministering  to  the  wants 
of  sick  and  wounded  soldiers  in  the  hospital  at  this 
place  at  that  time.  Many  other  soldiers,  too,  in  pass- 
imx  the  road    on  the    cars  and  walking,  received    hij^ 


192 

kind  attention.     lie   was    always   liberal    towards   the 

needy,  kind  to  the  suffering,  and  bad  a  cheering  word 

for  all. 

P.  H.  DALTOX. 

Pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  Hi<?h  Point,  X.  C. 


INCIDENTS  OP  THE  SEIGE  OF  CHARLESTON. 


Miss  K.  Finney  was  playing  the  piano,  and  I  was 
taking  lunch  before  leaving  for  Summer ville,  w^hen  a 
shell  exploded  near  the  window,  and  tore  up  a  lot  of 
fig  trees.  She  did  not  change  her  tune  or  stop 
playing. 

As  I  passed  Mr.  Sam  M's  house,  on  Green  street,  in 
rear  of  the  college,  and  whilst  talking  to  his  three  daugh- 
ters, a  large  bomb-shell  fell  very  near  us,  but  did  not 
explode.  I  guaranteed  two  shells  to  pass  over  the 
ladies  wdiilst  they  gathered  flowers  every  morning  in 
Mr.  lieach's  garden,  on  Meeting  street. 

Miss  K.  F.,  one  of  my  Fills,  had  the  courage  to  go 
•with  me  to  see  the  mammoth  gun  on  the  battery,  which 
carried  a  five  hundred  pound  shot.  A  shell  passed 
over  our  heads  and  fell  some  fifty  yards  beyond  us.  It 
was  a  June  morning,  and  Miss  Kate  merely  said,  ''  The 
sun  is  so  hot,  ^ve  had  better  return."  ATe  then  had 
nearly  a  mile  to  walk  through  the  deserted  city,  and 
under  the  shelling,  and  the  shelling  was  incessant,  and 
knocked  the  houses  into  ''pi."  Mr.  White,  one  of  the 
proprietors  of  the  Charleston  Hotel,  was  the  first  man 
io  be  seen,  and  who  guarded  the  hotel.     I  always  asked 


193 

liim,  as  I  passed,  how  many  times  be  had  been  bit  that 
day.  His  answer  was,  "  I  have  been  bit  by  the  bricks 
that  v.'ere  knocked  into  the  dining-room." 

The  Mills  House  w^as  struck  about  twenty-seven 
times,  the  last  time  I  inquired,  St.  Michael's  church, 
•near  by,  seemed  to  be  the  only  structure  that  escaped. 
One  bomb  struck  the  northern  end,  about  the  close  of 
the  bombardment. 

Rev.  C.  C.  Pinckney's  church,  about  a  mile  further 
ofl:',  on  Wentworth  street,  was  struck  by  a  bomb,  and 
•several  pews  torn  up  where  I  had  lately  sat,  a  few 
nights  before,  having  escorted  Miss  S.  IST.,  one  of  my 
'FiWs,  to  a  rehearsal  for  a  concert  for  some  charity,  and 
^ve  had  reason  to  expect  a  bomb-shell  in  the  church 
Avhilst  they  sang. 

I  am  peculiarly  constituted,  and  can  sleep  soundly 
under  bomb-shells  or  thunder,  but  the  slightest  noise 
awakens  me  from  sleep,  as  fully  as  does  the  slightest 
hint  of  contempt  awakens  my  anger.  I  saw  several 
Irishmen  and  little  negroes  killed  by  unexploded  shells, 
as  they  exploded  by  friction  in  getting  the  powder  out 
in  order  to  sell  the  shells  to  the  Confederates  ;  two  old 
persons  killed  in  their  beds  near  the  market,  and  one 
negro  woman  killed  by  a  stone  knocked  up  by  a  shell. 

I  could  hire  a  carriage,  at  the  same  price  per  hour, 
lo  go  in  the  way  of  the  bombs  as  in  that  portion  of  the 
city  the  bombs  could  not  reach. 

I  could  never  fear  them,  and  remained  at  nights  for 
months  where  these  shells  reached,  and  let  old  Doctor 
II.,  who  could  not  sleep  well  under  the  noise,  go  to  Suni- 
nierville  every  night  and  take  my  room  tl>ere.     I  calcu- 

13 


194 

lated  that  if  it  took  six  months  to  hit  the  Mills  House 
twenty  times,  it  would  take  at  least  one  year  to  hit  me. 
The  club-house,  near,  and  the  police-station  were  well  rid- 
dled with  bombs.  The  negroes  called  the  smaller  shells 
"  Whistlers  !"  the  larger  ones  the  "  Where  are  you  ?  " 

I  sat  in  the  house  of  Dr.  Harold,  on  Ann  street,  one  day 
with  my  daughter  and  her  beau.  The  shells  were  com- 
ing thicker  and  faster  than  usual,  as  larger  and  heavier 
guns  had  been  placed  at  a  greater  elevation.  Several 
shells  fell  near  the  house  ;  one  killed  an  Irishman  whilst 
he  was  trying  to  get  the  powder  out.  I  counted  the  re- 
ports, and  there  were  one  a  minute ;  but  the  firing  at 
Fort  Sumter  was  so  continuous  that  the  noise  was  too 
common  to  impress  my  mind  of  the  accuracy  of  the 
time  mentiond;  the  mosquitoes  had  worried  me  the 
night  before,  and  I  said  to  my  company  that  I  would  go 
to  sleep,  and  they  might  keep  the  count.  Indeed  the 
acts  and  things  of  excitement  for  each  day  were  enough 
for  a  week. 


LETTEKS— MESSES.  BEUCE   A^^D    WESSON. 


Notes  from  a  letter  to  James  C.  Bruce,  in  answer  to 
a  wish  of  his  to  know  where  I  would  spend  the  winter,, 
and  if  I  would  go  with  him  to  Florida. 

Summit,  N.  C,  November  19,  1855. 
Mr.  Jas.  C.  Bruce  : 

Bear  Sir — ^Your  esteemed  favor  of  the  16th  instant, 
has  been  received  and  reperused.  "  A  divinity  shapes 
our  ends,  rough  hew  them  how  we  will."  Recent- 
ly I  was  offered  a  partnership  in  business  by  Messrs. 
Hardy  k  Brothers,  of  Norfolk,  and  choice  of  three  cities 


"CALAIS-MORALE."  195 

to  locate.  I  acknowledged  the  compliment,  and  my 
want  of  health.  Unexpectedly  from  a  more  appreciated 
sonrc'%  a  trip  to  Florida — perhaps  a  panacea  for  my 
failing  liealth,  and  as  consort  in  the  voyage  the  one  had 
I  tlie  world  to  choose.  Fully  sensitive  to  such  high 
marks  of  notice,  although  I  cannot  see  my  worthiness, 
except  as  Solomon  says,  "seest  thou  a  man  diligent  in 
his  husiness,  he  shall  stand  before  kings,  and  not  before 
mean  men,"  &c.  "While  I  would  prefer  to  stand  before 
a  truly  refined  gentleman  as  the  choicest  gift  on  earth, 
yet  stern  necesity  presses  me  on  in  conflict  with  the 
opposite. 

Perhaps  my  health  has  been  sacrificed  to  my  business. 
Shall  I  now  in  turn  sacrifice  business  to  health  ?  Had 
I  been  one,  even  two  or  three,  it  would  be  no  question. 
I  long  since  have  tried.  Alas  !  I  am  too  many — even 
ten  to  provide  for,  (my  cause  of  delay  and  reflection.)  the 
fatal  destroyer  of  my  philosophy,  which  yields  to  bad 
health,  makes  me  feel  poor  indeed,  until  I  can  recuper- 
ate my  health  and  energies ;  then  rich  again.  I  took  a 
chill  at  Weldon  on  the  10th  ultimo,  and  have  been  under 
the  weather  since.  Perhaps  you  are  my  good  star,  and 
I  hope  it  will  be  convenient  for  us  to  go  to  Florida,  and 
find,  if  not  the  rejuvenating  spring  there  sought  for  a 
long  time  ago,  a  spring  of  flowers  that  will  make  glad 
the  heart,  purify  the  soul,  and  cause  that  magnanimity 
in  thought  which  soars  above  the  ills  that  flesh  is 
heir  to. 

I  have  my  house  to  set  in  order  for  a  long  absence ; 
a  daughter  to  be  mai-ried  on  the  12th  of  December. 
Would  not  January  or  even  February,  March  or  April, 
do  (so  fickle  are  these  months)  for  a  change  of  climate. 


196  ''  CALAIS-MORALE.'* 

If  3'ou  will  go,  say  the  time  you  prefer.  I  will  go  if  I 
can  possibly  do  so,  and  w^ould  like  to  visit  aMobile  and 
New  Orleans,  too.  Now,  let  us  go  somewhere.  I  do 
believe,  we  mutually,  hold  the  panacea  for  each  other's 
ills,  if  we  can  manage  the  exchange. 

Yours  truly, 

W.  II.  WESSON. 


Berry  Hill,  February  5th,  1856. 
Mr.  W.  H.  Wesson  : 

Dear  Sir — Your  letter  did  not  reach  me  until  the  day 
before  yesterday.  Puss  in  boots  is  rather  a  strange  cat ; 
but  what  shall  we  say  of  a  philosopher  who  deals  in 
guano  ?  and  a  regular  trader  whose  soul  overflows  with 
sentiment  and  poetry.  Really,  sir,  you  are  not  one,  but 
-'  all  mankind's  epitome." 

I  thank  you  for  introducing  in  your  letter,  sucli  a 
Phoenix  to  my  attention  and  admiration.  But  really, 
the  weather  to-day  freezes  up  everything  genial  in  my 
composition,  and  mv  imagination  sympathises  with  my 
Angers.  I  am  now  glad  that  we  did  not  go  South. 
Tampa  Bay  is  almost  as  cold  as  Cape  Cod,  and  we 
should  have  suffered  much  on  the  way  side.  I  have  by 
dint  of  carpets,  curtains  and  sand-bags  pretty  nearly 
succeeded  in  making  a  Southern  climate  at  Berry  Hill. 
If  you  will  come  this  way,  I  shall  be  very  much  pleased 
to  see  you,  and  talk  over  guano,  philosophy  and  poetry. 

I  rather  think  it  too  late  for  a  Southern  excursion, 
unless  we  put  it  off'  to  the  montli  of  April.  Cars  and 
stoves  are  exceedingly  trying  to  my  lungs,  and  I  had 
rather  not  encounter  the  peril. 


i9r 

Your  liver  is  at  fault,  which,  by  its  vicious  secretions, 
darkens  your  skin  and  your  spirits.  Calomel  will  clear 
up  the  one,  and  brandy  the  other.  Try  them — to  be 
well  shaken  before  taken — that  is  the  taker  to  be  well 
shaken  by  running  or  riding.  Next  summer  drink 
sulphur  water  six  weeks,  and  I  will  ensure  a  cure.  Your 
lungs  or  bronchial  tubes  are  not  primarily  afliected.  Cure 
your  liver,  and  you  will  be  no  more  troubled  with  your 
cough. 

I  am  yours,  with  much  reojard, 

JAMES  C.  BRUCE. 

Again  on  the  22d  of  January,  185G,  I  wrote,  as  near 
as  I  can  copy  from  notes,  as  follows  : 

Summit,  IS".  C,  January  22d,  185(J. 
Mr.  James  C.  Eruce  : 

Dear  Sir — Will  such  weather  excuse  this  trespass  ?  I 
am  almost  a  barometer  in  sensitiveness  to  atmospheric 
influences.  I  know  you  are  amiable,  yet  deny  gratitude 
to  men.  Pardon  me  for  the  despondent  tone  to  your 
inquiry,  where  I  would  spend  the  winter.  I  was  then 
laboring  under  chills,  and  a  ship-load  of  guano,  which 
I  had  to  re-deliver  at  Gaston  and  "Weldon,  on  account 
of  the  fever  at  Portsmouth.  My  word  and  many  crops  of 
wheat  were  in  jeopardy,  yet  was  entirely  successful  in 
all  of  the  deliveries  and  collections,  some  thirty-five 
thousand  dollars.  The  profit  can  never  pay  for  the 
anxiety  and  over-exertion  while  sick.  A  just  revenge  on 
my  vanity,  which  caused  me  to  yield,  although  I  had  re- 
fused for  two  months,  to  take  this  guano,  though  insured 
against  everu  risk,  and  not  to  advance  one  cent,  even 
railroad  freight,  until  sales  and  collections,  an  anomaly 


198 

in  this  trade,  perhaps  a  compHment  to  the  forty  thousand 
dollars  worth  I  had  just  paid  them  for,  for  the  upper 
country  at  one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  per  ton 
profit  to   myself 

When  you  wrote  I  would  have  gone  anywhere  from 
my  troubles  and  sickness,  that  I  could  have  honorably 
done,  but  was  nailed  to  my  post,  which  made  things  ap- 
pear even  worse. 

I  am  now  clear  again,  health  moderate,  and  fain 
would  go  with  you  anywhere,  as  I  believe  you  will  yet 
make  my  fortune  or  quiet  (which  preferred).  Des- 
pairing as  I  then  was,  the  ruling  passion  strong,  the 
thought  passed  my  mind  that  should  we  go — what 
for  employment  ?  Why  then  write  a  book  upon  the  sub- 
ject— "  The  Experience  of  a  Poor  and  Rich  Man  as  to 
what  will  Constitute  Happiness,  Content  and  Wealth  ?" 
A  hit  on  this  subject  would  make  my  fortune,  and  en- 
dow the  college  for  the  Union  Agricultural  Society  at 
Petersburg. 

"That  man  was  never  born  whose  secret  soul, 
With  all  its  moth^  treasures  of  dark  thoughts, 
Foul  fantacies,  vain  musings  and  wild  dreams. 
Was  ever  open  to  another's  scan." 

What's  higher  than  for  a  burdened  soul  to  hit  upon 
some  expedient,  that  while  it  relieves  itself,  benefits 
the  present  and  future  age,  and  leaves  a  stone  that  Old 
Mortality  would  keep  fresh  through  choice. 

I  have  had  my  share  of  this  world's  deepest  misery; 
and  highest  pleasures,  with  some  philosophy ;  but  ill 
health  has  always  thrown  me  from  my  stronghold. 

In  conclusion,  allow  me  to  feel  inclined  to  be  grateful 


199 

to  one  by  whose  advice  and  notice  I  have  profited,  while 
the  knowledge  of  the  world  and  ourselves,  tend  to  your 
opinion,  and  that  I  truly  subscribe  myself, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

W.  II.  WESSON. 


Summit,  N.  C,  February  7th,  1856. 
Mr.  James  E.  Bruce: 

Dear  Sir — Yours  of  yesterday  came  to  hand  to-day  ; 
tickled  my  vanity,  and  no  doubt,  will  effect  my  liver. 
Puss  is  quiet — the  felines  are  my  favorite  animals.  The 
guano  in  my  letter  to  you  was  the  second  I  ever  wrote 
that  did  not  carry  the  dollars  and  cents  with  it.  To 
prove  sentiment,  sense  and  cents  in  the  article,  I  must 
quote  from  a  letter,  though  to  a  lady  : 

"  This  egg  was  found  forty-tv/o  feet  below  the  surface 
of  the  Xorth  Chinchee  Island,  and  brought  to  jSJorfolk, 
March,  1854,  by  Captain  Chase  of  the  ship  Carohne 
Tucker,  eighty-five  days  out,  with  two  thousand  tons  of 
guano.  It  was  presented  to  me  by  the  Captain,  and  to 
Miss  Lucy  Jones  by  her  old  acquaintance,  W.  II. 
"Wesson.  The  odor  of  this  egg,  more  desirable  than 
gold,  like  it,  carries  the  sense.'!,  and  makes  the  poorest 
■soils  apparently  rich,  but  leaves  them  more  sterile  when 
not  aided  by  the  proper  requisites." 

Dean  Swift  says  "  if  two  blades  of  grass  are  made  to 
grow  where  ordy  one  grew  before,"  what  shall  we  say 
of  two  dollars  where  only,  &c.,  &c.  The  point  of  the 
jest  being  in  the  ear  than  hears  rather  than  the  tongue 
that  speaks,  or  I  would  not  venture  this  play  on  words. 

I  heard  an  orator  assert  that  one  should  study  all  the 


200  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

professions  to  be  an  orator.  I  say  he  should  practice- 
them  alL 

At  sixteen  I  had  the  choice  of  the  stale  schoolmaster's 
chair  or  the  petty  lawyer's  dusty  office.  Being  one  of 
the  ''nation  "  of  shop-keepers,  my  necessity  would  take 
the  shop,  well  hammered,  as  the  readiest  practical  way 
to  the  dollar  mentioned  and  the  world. 

What  is  philosophy  ?  Behind  the  counter  the  animal 
man  is  constantly  exposed  to  view.  Then  the  poetry  of 
my  nature,  if  any. 


[pardon.] 
ANDREW  JOHNSON, 

PRESIDENT    OF    THE    UNITED     STATES    OF    AMERICA. 

To  all  to  Whom  these  Presents  shall  Come,  Greeting : 

Whereas,  W".  H.  Wesson,  of  Petersburg,  Virginia,  by 
taking  ixirt  in  the  late  rebellion  against  the  Government 
of  the  United  States,  has  made  himself  liable  to  heavy 
pains  and  penalties ; 

And,  AVhereas,  2  he  circumstances  of  his  case  render 
him  a  proper  object  of  Executive  clemency  : 

Now,  Therefore,  be  it  Known,  That  I,  Andrew 
Johnson,  President  of  the  United  States  of  America,  in 
consideration  of  the  premises,  divers  other  good  and  suffi- 
cient reasons  me  thereunto  snoring,  do  hereby  grant  to  the 
said  W.  H.  Wesson  a  full  pardon  and  amnesty  for  all 
offences  by  Mm  committed,  arising  from  p>articipation, 
direct  or  implied,  in  the  said  rebellion,  conditioned  as 
folloics  : 

First — This  pardon  to  be  of  no  eff^cct  until  the  said  W. 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  20*1 

11.  Wesson  shall  take  the  oath  prescribed  in  the  proclama- 
tion of  the  President,  dated  May  29th,  18G5. 

Second—  To  be  void  and  of  no  effect  if  the  said  AY.  IL 
Wesson  shall  hereafter,  at  any  time,  acquire  any  pro- 
picrty  in  slaves,  or  make  use  of  slave  labor. 

Third— That  the  said  W.  II.  W essoin  first  pay  all  costs 
which  may  have  accrued  in  any  proceedings  instituted  or 
pending  against  his  picrson  or  property,  before  the  date  of  the 
acceptemce  of  this  warrant. 

Fourth— That  the  said  W.  II.  Wesson  shall  not,  by 
virtue  of  this  warrant,  claim  any  property,  or  the  proceeds 
of  any  property,  that  has  been  sold  by  the  order,  judgment, 
or  decree  of  a  Court  imder  the  Confiscation  Laws  of  the 
United  States. 

Fifth— That  the  said  W.  H.  Wesson  shall  notify  the 
Secretary  of  State,  in  writing,  that  he  has  received  andx 
accepted  the  foregoing  piardon. 

In  Testimony  Whereof,  I  have  hereunto  signed  mj/ 
name  and   caused   the    Seal   of  the    United    States   to  be 

affixed. 

Bone   at   the  -City    of     Washington,    this 

/^^"^         {twenty-sixth)  day  of   October,   A.  D.  1865, 

\^^^'        and  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States 

the  ninieenth. 

ANDREW  JOHNSON. 

By  the  President  : 

Wm.  II.  Seward, 

Sec.  of  State. 


202  "  CALAIS-MORALE.' 


Trip  to  Europe 


^^F  after  ten  or  a  dozen  years  of  severe  professional 
€^  trial,  men  still  in  health  would  journey  to  preserve 
the  blessings  they  enjoy,  it  would  prolong  lives  which 
five  years  more  of  equal  labor  break  up  beyond  the 
power  of  any  traveling  to  restore. 

Atticus  said,  "  thank  heaven,  I  have  at  length  com- 
pletely reached  that  great  consideration  in  the  pursuit 
of  happiness,  in  being  able  to  concentrate,  not  only 
all  my  feelings,  but  all  my  ideas,  and  certainly  all  my 
wishes,  within  the  limit  of  this  domain."  Such  self- 
command  had  Carlin,  that  while  he  so  delighted  the 
Parisian  world  w^ith  his  humour,  and  was  thought  to  be 
diverted  by  it  himself,  he  was  consulting  his  physician 
upon  the  hypochondriasis  that  killed  him.  It  was 
Hazlett's  opinion  that  all  that  is  worth  remembering  in 
life  was  the  poetr}-  of  it. 

Business  compelled  me  to  go  to  Liverpool,  England, 
on  the  1st  of  August,  1867.  Having  told  my  former 
slaves  how  to  manage  until  my  return,  I  bought  a  round 
trip  ticket,  for  twelve  months,  on  the  Inman  Steamer, 
City  of  Washington,  by  the  toss  of  a  penny,  rather  than 
on  the  Cunard  Steamer  the  next  Saturday. 

As  I  got  on  board  to  arrange  about  my  berth,  near  it 
was  a  handsome,  fine  looking  gentleman,  who  spoke  to 
me,    introducing    himself    as     Bishop    Lee,    of    Iowa, 


203 

remarking  that  fellow  passengers  should  become 
acquainted.  I  remarked,  I  was  proud  to  make  his 
acquaintance,  particuhirly  as  he  was  a  preacher,  as  T 
wished  him,  should  an  accident  occur,  to  pray  for  us  all 
before  we  went  down.  He  said  he  would  preach  and 
pray  at  any  time  during  the  voyoge,  if  I  would  get  the 
permission  of  the  captain,  so  in  twenty  minutes  after  I 
first  got  on  board  of  the  ship,  I  had  an  acquaintance,  a 
preacher,  to  beguile  the  time  said  to  be  so  dull  at  sea. 

There  was  no  backgammon  board  on  board,  so  I 
returned  to  Broadway  and  purchased  a  good  one,  sup- 
posing the  Bishop  not  over  righteous,  or  more  opposed 
to  the  ivories  than  Dr.  Bachman  and  Dr.  Aldrich,  two 
pastors  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina.  We  were  soon  at 
sea,  and  the  sickness  came  upon  me,  but  the  Bishop  was 
never  sick  during  the  entire  voyage.  He  used  to  say, 
he  supposed  he  got  sea-proof  by  riding  upon  the  rough 
roads  in  Iowa.  There  was  a  Charleston  lady,  an  old 
acquaintance, on  board  with  her  husband,!  called  on  her 
at  her  house  in  Liverpool.  She  had  been  a  long  and 
welcome  visitor  to  Dickens,  and  was  expecting  him  to 
return  her  visit;  also  other  ladies,  making  thirty-seven 
<3abin,  and  as  many  steerage  passengers.  So  after  I  got 
the  Captain's  permission  for  the  Bishop  to  preach,  I 
made  good  use  of  the  prerogative  he  gave  me,  and  had 
service  in  the  week  days  and  on  Sunday  too.  1  always 
arranged  the  cabin  and  gave  notice,  so  the  steerage  pas- 
sengers might  don  their  best  clothes  in  time  for  service. 
One  week  day,  I  had  fixed  the  cushions  for  service  ;  the 
Captain  and  JBishop  were  in  conversation  and  motioned 
for  me  to  come  to  them.  The  Captain  said  to  me,  that 
as  it  was  raining  and  a  little  rough,  he  had  neglected  to 


204  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

notify  the  steerage  passeiigei's,  and  asked  if  service  should' 
go  on  without  them. 

I  answered  decidedly,  No !  That  I  had  no  respect  of 
persons  in  accidents  at  sea,  and  of  course,  if  we  should  go 
down  together,  all  should  pray  together  upon  op- 
portunity. So  we  postponed  service  to  the  next  day, 
and  it  proving  a  fine  one,  the  Bishop  gave  us  one  of  his 
best  sermons,  to  the  edification  of  all,  I  liope. 

Two  brothers,  Messrs.  G ,  of  Brooklyn  and  Sau 

Francisco,  Cal.,  werefond  of  backgammon.  We  played 
many  games.  I  beat  them  every  sitting,  and  then  had 
to  beat  the  surgeon  of  the  ship,  who  invited  me  to  re-^ 
main  free  on  board,  as  long  as  I  chose,  after  we  landed 
at  Liverpool. 

We  had  a  pleasant  voyage,  with  a  slight  scare  when 
near  the  Irish  coast.  On  our  arrival  at  Queenstown, 
the  Bishop  landed,  but  said  he  would  see  me  at  Lam- 
beth, London,  again.  He  showed  me  his  passport,  in 
which  his  person  and  eyes  were  described.  I  said  to- 
him,  that  there  was  something  cruel  and  ferocious  in  a 
grey  eye,  which,  yet  is  so  tempered  and  softened  by 
passion,  that  it  becomes  the  most  fascinating  in  nature.. 
That  my  thology  attributed  grey  eyes  to  Achilles,  to  in- 
dicate the  union  of  intellect  with  the  most  destructive 
properties,  Tiberius  had  grey  eyes.  To  talk  of  soft 
grey  eyes,  would  be  a  contradiction  ;  yet,  it  has  often, 
happened,  that  men  and  women  with  grey  eyes  have- 
fascinated  all  around  them.  The  reason  maybe  this: 
That  the  imperious  energy  of  the  character,  suggest  the 
necessity  of  exercising  an  antidote,  and  the  mixture  of 
fierceness,  and  of  all  absorbing  love,  operates  like  a 
spell. 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  205 

The  Bishop  answered,  yes;  and  I  see  you  liave  grey 
«yes  also.  The  eye  is  the  index  of  character  ;  physiog- 
onomy  reveals  the  secrets  of  the  heart. 

The  Bishop  landed  at  Qaeenstowii.  We  reached 
Liverpool,  after  a  voyage  of  eleven  days. 

Mr.  1) ,  of  Virginia,  was  on  the  wharf  to  meet 

me,  and  took  me  to  the  boarding  house,  where  I  was 
expected.  Then  we  went  by  a  large  hall,  with  Scotch 
granite  pillars,  where  the  court  Avas  in  session,  and  I 
saw  J.  V.  J^enjamin,  of  New  Orleans,  La.,  in  his  gown 
and  wig.  After  this,  we  traversed  through  Brown's 
library  and  free  museum,  where  we  saw  a  full  grown 
gorilla.  Then  we  proceeded  to  the  office  of  Messrs.  C. 
F.  &  Co.,  where  my  business,  with  whicli  firm,  detained 
me  for  nearly  one  month. 

I  shall  not  attempt  to  describe  the  docks  in  Liverpool 
and  at  Ilollingsliead.  To  those  wlio  have  not  seen  them, 
it  would  appear  a  big  story;  and  it  is  best  to  write,  or 
tell,  a  reasonable  story.  I  boarded,  the  Great  E.islern, 
mammoth  iron  steamship,  which  lay  in  the  channel,  and 
thought  she  paid  tlie  same  compliment  to  man,  that  the 
magnificent  Liverpool  docks  did.  A.  T.  B.  of  B.  Ship- 
ley &  Co.,  sent  for  me  to  come  and  see  him,  and  unex- 
pectedly paid  me  a  compliment,  which,  he  said,  he  could 
pay  to  no  other  person  among  his  many  customers  in 
cotton. 

I  next  went  to  visit  Mr.  J.  Calder,  at  his  home,  and 
then  to  Leamington  with  Mr.  F.,  who  resided  there. 
He  took  me  to  Stratford-on-Avon.  We  examined  the 
house  in  which  Shakespeare  was  born,  and  bought  some 
photographs;  then  to  the  old  church  in  which  he  was 
buried,  where  I   read   the    recjuest   on    his    tomljstone. 


206 

Next  trip  to  Kugby,  where  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
seven  railroad  trains  pass  every  work-day  of  the  week, 
on  the  London  and  Great  Western  Railroad.  Next 
day  to  the  Midland  Oak  and  Kenilworth  Castle.  From 
the  ruins  I  gathered  an  ivy  leaf,  which  (aided  by  Mrs.  F.) 
I  enclosed  with  something  more  substantial,  to  my  old 
friend  Dr.  Bachman,  of  Charleston,  S.  C,  and  wrote 
him  that  I  might  die,  or  be  lost  in  some  of  my  peregri- 
nations out.  He  knew  I  would  never  travel  on  the 
Sabbath.     I  always  went  to  church  wherever  I  might  be. 

I  returned  to  Liverpool,  after  spending  nearly  a  week 
at  Leamington,  the  gem  town  of  England. 

Bishop  Lay  was  a  guest  there,  and  we  went  to  a 
church,  of  magnificent  proportions,  to  hear  a  preacher, 
who  had  advertised  the  ofler  to  bet  one  hundred  pounds 
that  be  could  make  an  egg  stand  on  its  end. 

Two,  liichmond  Ya.,  ladies  were  with  us. 

In  Liverpool  we  left  papers,  and  Mr.  Calder,  to  do  a 
knotty  arbitration.  He  would  receive  no  pay  ;  but,  as  he 
had  a  subscription  paper  for  a  Widows'  and  Orphans'  Home 
in  Charleston,  S.  C,  after  much  pressing,  he  consented 
to  receive  my  contribution. 

It  rained  nearly  every  day  at  the  time  I  was  in  Liver- 
pool, and  I  had  to  buy  an  umbrella,  as  it  was  the  habit 
of  everybody  to  carry  one. 

Mr.  D.  was  to  have  gone  with  me  to  the  Paris  Expo- 
sition, but  his  business  would  not  permit  him.  He  spoke 
French ;  I  could  not  speak  it,  but  I  knew  that  the  lan- 
guage of  the  eye,  the  hand,  and  the  purse,  suffices  for 
any  civilized  people.  I  set  off  alone ;  Mr.  D.  and  Mr. 
F.  went  w^ith  me  to  the  Lime  Street  depot,  and   re- 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  207" 

gretted,  Mr.  D.  conld  not  go,  as  I  would  have  no  one  to 
talk  to,  for  it  was  mj  rule,  never  to  speak  to  a  stranger 
first,  and  Englishmen  were  so  reserved  and  exclusive,, 
that  they  would  not  speak  to  me. 

I  rode  in  the  car  two  hundred  miles  to  London  with 
one  passenger  ;  he  did  not  speak  to  me,  nor  I  to  liim.  I 
had  written  directions,  for  the  hotel  and  things  worth 
seeing.  I  went  to  the  Langham  Place  Hotel,  hired  a 
cab  by  the  day,  :N'o.  11,000,  saved  time  and  trouble,, 
visited  the  tower  of  London,  Westminster  Hall,  Parlia- 
ment House,  St.  Pauls,  Thames  Tunnel,  Zoological  Gar- 
dens, British  Museum,  Madame  Tassards'  three  opera 
houses  or  theatres.  Polytechnic  Hall,  and  Lambetli,  to  see 
Bishop  Lee,  (he  was  guest  of  the  Lord  Mayor  of  Lon- 
don) and  then,  via  railroad,  to  the  Chrystal  Palace. 

I  saw  only  one  man  and  a  cat.  The  man  was  o-Hnd- 
ing  an  organ  in  the  immense  well  lighted  Thames  Tun- 
nel. I  convinced  my  escort  in  the  Zoological  Gardens 
that  I  had  mesmeric  power  enough  about  me  to  tame 
an  African  lion  and  two  lynx,  that  became  uproarous  if 
he  came  inside  of  their  houses;  with  me  they  were  as 
docile  as  house  cats,  which  would  always  follow  me  if 
they  could,  however  much  of  a  stranger  I  might  be.  I 
had  a  yearly  return  ticket;  took  cars  for  the  Dieppe 
steamer.  In  my  compartment  came  a  man  and  woman, 
who  were  evidently  Americans.  I  was  readino-  the 
London  Tunes,  and  the  cars  had  barely  started.  The 
man  spoke  to  me,  and  asked  me  what  I  gave  for  my 
coat. 

I  ceased  reading,  held  out  my  foot,  told  him  what  I 
gave  for  my  shoes,  coat,  hat,  &c.,  and  my  home,  and 
when  I  was  through,  the  woman  popped  her  head  around 


^08  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

and  asked  :  did  I  not  lose  a  heap  of  negroes  bj  the  war. 
I  told  her  no  ;  that  I  had,  all  I  had  now  before  the  war, 
and  many  of  their  kindred  besides,  whom  I  did  not 
want,  since  there  were  too  many  already  on  seven  hun- 
dred acres  of  land,  which  was  not  rich,  and  they  would 
-continue  to  make  it  poorer. 

The  man  said  they  came  from  Western  New  York. 

So,  I  said,  if  she  or  any  of  their  friends  wanted  ne- 
groes, they  might  go  to  my  place,  and  I  would  give 
them  as  many  as  they  wished,  and  a  fair  portion  of  my 
iand;  but,  that  they  must  deposit  |1,000  as  security ; 
that  they  would  teach  the  negroes,  who  were  very  do- 
cile, and  would  permit  me  to  give  them  away  to  any 
party  who  would  insure  a  good  support  for  them.  This 
ended  our  conversation,  for  we  were  at  the  steamer  by 
that  time.  The  channel  is^sixty  miles  wide,  to  Dieppe, 
and  the  water  rough  enough  to  make  a  poodle  sick. 
This  man  and  woman  seemed  to  be  examining  everj- 
part  of  the  steamer,  and  at  last,  they  went  up  an  iron 
ladder,  to  a  small  upper  deck,  where  were  a  few  camp- 
stools,  and  three  men  sitting  and  smoking. 

I  had  just  gone  up  there,  and  the  man  seeing  me, 
came  up  and  commenced  a  very  irrelevant  conversa- 
tion. I,  being  sea-sick,  may  have  been  too  severe  on 
him.  I  do  not  recollect  what  I  said  to  him,  but  as 
Dickens  puts  it,T  must  have  thrown  a  net-work  of  words 
over  him,  that  tickled  him  from  his  head  to  his  feet,  for 
I  shall  never  forget  the  countenance  of  this  man. 

He  had  to  say  something,  so  he  remarked  :  I  will  go 
and  talk  to  the  man  at  the  rudder.  I  pointed  to  the 
large  letters  on  the  board,  near  this  man,  ''no  one  al- 
lowed to  speak  to  the  man  at  the  rudder." 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  209 

The  man  and  woman  disappeared.  I  never  saw  them 
aojain  ;  but,  surely  they  were  very  different  people  from 
the  Englishman  I  rode  with  from  Liverpool  to  London. 

What  I  said  to  this  man  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
three  young  English  gentlemen  present ;  they  asked  me 
to  take  a  seat  witli  them,  and  one  of  them  offered  to  "-o 
for  claret  to  try  and  palleate  my  sea  sickness ;  they  af- 
terwards asked  me  to  stop  with  them  at  Dieppe,  as  they 
were  on  their  way  to  Paris  on  three  weeks'  vacation. 
T  thanked  them  for  their  attention,  and  told  them  my 
bago^age  was  ticketed  through  and  I  must  follow  it;  and, 
besides,  I  had  brought  with  me  no  extra  money  to  stop 
on  the  way.  All  of  them  offered  to  furnish  me  with  as 
much  money  as  I  might  need,  but  I  had  to  decline  their 
proffered  kindness,  though  I  was  sick  enough  to  stop 
anywhere. 

Just  before  landing  I  was  standing,  on  the  lower  deck 
and  a  stranger  came  to  me  and  said:  '•  I  married  a  Vir- 
ginia lady,  the  State  from  which  you  come,  (I  suppose  the 
man  or  his  wife  I  have  been  speaking  of,  must  have  told 
him),  and  I  wish  to  introduce  you  to  my  wife  and  two 
sons;  we  come  from  Colorado;  I  am  in  the  mining 
business  there  and  came  to  see  my  father  in  Dublin,  and 
left  one  of  our  sons  with  him ;  we  are  on  our  way  to 
Paris  for  a  little  shopping  and  sight-seeing,  but  my  wife 
wishes  to  stop  in  Dieppe,  and  we  wish  you  to  stop  with 
lis."  And  he  must  introduce  me  to  his  wife,  which  was 
done.  I  pleaded  mv  trunks  ticketed  throus^h.  The  wife 
said,  "  all  of  our  trunks  are  ticketed  through,  too,"  but 
she  wished  to  buy  some  fancy  ivory  bijou,  made  only  in 
Dieppe.  I  said  I  had  no  money  to  stop  on  the  way  or 
to  buy  ivory — 

14 


210  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

"  Oh,"  he  said,  "  as  to  that,  I  will  furnish  you  any 
amount  of  money  you  may  wish,  and  we  may  stop  m 
Eouen  too." 

I  could  not  excuse  myself  farther,  and  said  :  If  you 
can  take  me  without  a  change  of  clothes,  I  will  not  com- 
plain— five  out  of  the  seven  passengers  had  asked  me  ta 
stop  with  themj  and  oflered  me  money,  and  this  arrange- 
ment did  not  inconvenience  me,  for  I  left  Liverpool 
with  no  fixed  plans.  On  landing,  a  white-aproned  ser- 
vant invited  us  to  the  Hotel  du  Nord,  near  by ;  we 
walked  to  the  door  and  was  met  by  the  hostess,  who 
welcomed  us  in  fair  Enghsh.  I  said  to  her  I  should  be 
obliged  to  like  the  French  people,  because  they  are  fond 
of  pet  cats  and  dogs. 

Mr.  Armor  and  his  wife  went  to  their  room  ;  I  went 
with  the  boys  in  the  court-yard,  where  everything  was- 
neat  and  convenient,  but  not  showy.  Near  the  cook- 
room  door  we  saw  three  of  the  purest  white  cats,  al- 
most as  snowy  as  ermine.  I  caught  them  and  fondlecJ 
them  until  the  return  ot  the  lady  and  gentleman.  As 
it  was  late  in  the  day,  and  we  were  to  make  selections 
and  purchases  of  the  rare  ivory  trinkets,  manufactured 
only  in  Dieppe,  we  had  to  hurry  on. 

Far  more  than  thirty  years  I  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
carrying  money  in  my  right  vest  pocket,  and  never 
counted  the  same.  I  had  also  with  me  a  portmonae^ 
and  had  some  in  that.  In  it  was  some  gold  ;  so,  in  my 
purchases,  I  had  frequently  to  tell  Mr.  Armor  that  my 
money  held  out,  and  I  could  take  none  of  him  until 
mine  was  exhausted.  I  got  more  of  the  tempting  things 
than  I  could  carry  home,  and  I  sent  some  of  them  back 
by  a  friend  going  to  my  Virginia  home.     We  had  a 


''CALAIS-MORALE."  211 

good  night's  sleep  and  a  good  breakfast.  Before  we 
took  it,  however,  we  visited  the  market  and  saw  the  usual 
sales  to  the  retail  hucksters.  After  breakfast  I  went  to 
the  ofHce  to  pay  my  bill,  and  having  about  eighty  cents 
left,  I  emptied  my  portmonae  on  the  table  and  told  Ala- 
dame  Gribon  that  was  all  the  money  I  had,  and  I  would 
give  it  to  her  for  one  of  the  white  cats ;  as  I  cared  no- 
thing for  money,  I  would  offer  that.  She  answered  : 
''Sell  a  cat!  No;  I  will  give  you  one;  will  you  take  it 
with  you  now  ?  I  said  no.  She  then  promised  she 
would  put  it  in  her  chamber,  and  keep  it  until  I  sent  or 
came  for  it. 

Mr.  Armor  came  in,  and  seeing  my  empty  portmonae 
lying  on  the  table,  he  took  it  up  and  tilled  it  with  gold 
without  countinsT  the  amount. 

o 

I  said,  "  Madame,  see  here  why  I  should  not  care  for 
money ;  this  stranger,  whom  I  saw  for  the  first  time  as 
we  were  about  to  land  from  the  steamer,  without  being 
asked,  fills  my  purse  with  gold ;  three  other  gentlemen 
offered  the  same  kindness  when  I  got  on  board  the 
steamer.  I  asked  Mr.  Armor  if  my  statement  was 
correct  in  regard  to  him.     He  answered  "  yes." 

Our  bills  being  paid,  we  left  for  Rouen,  to  remain 
over  the  next  day,  Sunday,  and  to  visit  and  examine 
some  of  the  curiosities  of  that  city.  We  arrived  before 
noon,  and  went  to  the  new  Cathedral  of  St.  Catherine 
and  St.  Onen,  which  contains  the  ashes  of  the  heart  of 
Richard,  "  Cccuv  de  Lion." 

I  was  hungry  at  three  P.  M.;  (I  never  eat  six  P.  M.  din- 
ners), so  I  left  my  Armor  friends  at  the  hotel  and  sought 
a  restaurant.  My  landlord  might  have  my  dinner,  and 
the  pay  for  it  too.     But  at  the  restaurant  I  could  reflect ; 


212  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

could  then  look  around  and  return  to  the  hotel  at  leis- 
ure. "When  I  arrived,  I  found  a  long  table  with  all  the 
chairs  tilled,  except  one  for  me,  next  Mrs.  Armor.  I 
took  this  seat.  As  the  many  courses  were  served  I  de- 
clined all  but  a  pear  and  some  cream  cheese.  Told  Mrs. 
Armor  I  had  dined  when  I  felt  hungry.  As  I  was  not 
occupied  with  the   dinner,  I  talked  to  her  fully  at  ease. 

Opposite  me  sat  a  well-preserved  old  English  gentle- 
man and  his  w^ife ;  he  got  up  from  the  table  and  came 
around,  evidently  to  speak  to  me,  and  remarked :  "  It 
is  fine  w^eather."  I  remarked,  "  It  would  be  not  so  con- 
sidered in  my  country,"  for  it  was  raining,  and  I  said, 
•'Please,  sir,  recollect  that  that  you  spoke  to  me  first." 
The  next  day,  Sunday,  he  asked  me  to  walk  with  him  and 
wife  to  St.  Ouen.  ile  told  me  he  was  seventy  years  old, 
his  wife  sixty-five,  and  that  they  were  returning  from 
their  recent  continental  tour;  that  his  wife  had  ridden  on 
horseback  over  one  hundred  miles  in  Switzerland  ;  that 
he  preferred  walking  to  any  other  way  of  locomotion 
w^hen  the  distance  was  practicable. 

The  next  day,  we  were  punctual  at  the  "  Eglise  St. 
Ouen."  Whom  should  we  meet,  to  my  surprise,  but 
the  three  young  Englishmen,  who  had  offered  me 
money  on  the  steamer,  and  who  were  acquaintances  of 
my  new  comrades.  They  seemed  pleased  to  meet  me 
again,  and,  in  such  good  company;  their  time  was  short. 
They  bid  us  good-bye  whilst  the  service  was  going  on, 
and  we  walked  around  the  interior,  examining  the  paint- 
inirs  and  other  curiosities,  which  is  the  custom  in  those 
churches,  provided  the  conversation  is  not  loud. 

Sunday  is  the  day  when  museums  and  other  places  of 
interest  are  free  to  the   public,  and  my  Cicerone  and 


*' CALAIS-MORALE."  213^ 

lady  took  me  through  all  of  those  in  Roncn.  In  one 
museum  we  saw  a  manuscript  eleven  hundred  years 
old.  The  lady  said  to  her  husband :  *'  You  have  a 
manuscript  in  your  library  older  than  this." 

We  talked  and  we  looked,  and  their  knowledge  was 
as  rare  to  me  as  the  curiosities.  Both  of  them  ap- 
peared as  much  interested  as  if  tbey  had  not  seen  the 
same  places  and  things  oft  times  before. 

We  had  to  leave  a  penny  for  our  umbrellas  at  the 
door  of  each  museum.  For  seven  hours  we  were  on 
our  feet,  and  I  must  say  that,  at  three  p.  M.,  I  wished 
for  something  to  eat ;  but  I  concluded  I  w^ould  fast, 
and  walk  as  long  as  my  Cicerones,  who  dined  at  six 
p.  M.,  since  to  interest  me  seemed  to  be  their  chief 
purpose. 

We  arrived  at  the  hotel  at  live-and-a-half  p.  m.  At 
six  o'clock  I  was  seated  next  my  Armor  friends.  We 
discussed  the  dinner  and  its  well-cooked  courses,  and  I 
said  to  Mrs.  Armor  that  it  was  my  iirst  six  o'clock 
dinner,  and  I  felt  as  if  I  could  take  another. 

Next" to  me  sat  an  EngUshman,  his  wife  and  daugh- 
ter. After  the  dinner  and  its  hour  were  consumed, 
this  Englishman  spoke  to  me,  and  said  :  "I  am  now  on 
my  way  to  Heidelburg  or  Wurtemburg,  Germany,  to 
take  my  daughter  to  school."  They  did  not  move  from 
their  seats  until  nine  o'clock,  when  I  said  it  was  my  time 
for  retiring.  I  went  to  my  rest,  for  we  were  to  leave 
early  next  morning.  I  slept  in  the  seventh  story. 
Though  early,  my  Englishman  came  down  stairs,  and, 
with  a  hand-full  of  pennies,  asked  how  many  he  owed 
me.  I  answered  none,  that  I  knew  of.  lie  then  handed 
me  several,  saying  :  "  These  are  yours,  overpaid  in  the 


214  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

umbrellas  yesterday.     We  Englishman  are  very  particu- 
lar about  these  little  things.'''' 

I  then  apologised  for  my  rudeness  when  he  spoke  to 
me  first  at  dinner  on  Saturday,  told  him  ray  custom,  and 
of  the  advice  of  my  Liverpool  friends,  when  I  first 
started  on  this  journey,  but  I  remarked  that  my  experi- 
ence had  been  very  difierent  from  what  I  expected,  as 
he  might  have  observed  at  the  dinner  table  the  evening 
before.     He  laughed  and  bid  me  good-bye. 

I  could  but  reflect  that  though  in  strange  lands,  *'I 
jet  stood  before  good  men,  and  had  no  cause  for  a  sigh. 
The  art  of  conversation  consists  much  less  in  your  own 
abundance,  than  in  enabling  others  to  find  iaX^  for 
themselves.  Men  do  not  wish  to  admire  you,  they 
want  to  please.  Guests  should  be  neither  h^qaacious 
nor  silent.  Eloquence  is  for  the  forum,  and  silence  for 
the  bed  chamber,  and  the  thread  of  conversation  is 
sustained  by  several  persons  by  each  one  knowing  when 
to  take  a  ''  stitch  "  in  time.  There  are  persons  who 
speak  a  moment  before  they  have  thought.  There  are 
others  with  whom  you  have  to  undergo  in  conversation 
all  the  labor  of  their  minds,  they  talk  earnestly  and 
wearisomely. 

"  If  your  lips  would  keep  from  slips. 

Five  things  observe  with  care — 
Of  whom  you  speak,  to  whom  you  speak, 

And  how  and  when  and  where." 

Going  to  bed  early  enables  one  to  get  up  early  and 
to  depend  on  no  one  to  call  you. 

As  I  arose  early,  eat  my  breakfast,  settled  my  bill, 
talked  and  joked  with  the  two  good-looking  ladies  at 
the  ofiice,  got  some  paper  of  them,  wrote  to  Mr.  Calder, 


a 


CALAIS-MORALE."  215 


iit  Liverpool,  to  send  me  at  Paris  two  of  his  printed 
subscription  papers  for  the  asylum  in  Charleston,  South 
Carolina,  and  the  subscriber's  names  on  the  back  of 
them. 

The  Messrs.  Armors  come  down,  and  eat  their  break- 
fast; the  cab  came,  it  was  raining  hard,  and  the  cabman 
refused   to   carry   more   than    the  four  persons  in  Mr. 
Armors'    party.      It   w^as  too  late   then    to   order   an- 
other cab,  the  depot  was  a  mile  or  more   distant.    Mr. 
Armor  hesitated,  but  I  begged  him  to  go,  assured  him 
I  could  get  there  in  time,  as  I  could  walk  almost  as  fast 
as  he  would  go  in  the  cab.     I  took  my  shawl,  hat-box 
and   umbrella,  told   the  porter  to  bring  valise,  he  ran 
after  me  bare-headed,  shedding  water  like  a  duck.     I 
had  a  new  umbrella  which  cost  one  dollar  and  seventy- 
five  cents  in  Liverpool,  but  it  did  not  suit  me,  and  I  had 
promised  to  lose  it,  so  I  gave  it  to  the  porter,  to  his  de- 
light, and  shelter  him  to  the  hotel  again. 

I  had  scarcely  seated  myself  and  commenced  talking 
to  Mrs.  Armor,  when  a  gentleman  came  to  me  with  a 
splendid  silk  umbrella,  and  wished  to  present  it  to  me. 
I  told  him  I  had  no  further  use  for  an  umbrella,  and 
had  gladly  gotten  rid  of  the  one  I  gave  the  porter.  The 
porter  must  have  told  him,  or  he  saw  the  act.  How- 
ever, there  are  no  people  so  pleasant  or  so  polite,  as 
these  French  people.  It  is  true,  as  some  author  has 
said,  "  they  are  often  the  snares  of  politeness."  Be  it 
so.     Give  me  anything  but  a  churl  and  a  cheat. 

We  took  the  cars  for  Paris. 

Mrs.  Armor,  remarked  to  me,  in  the  presence  of  Mr. 
Armor,  that  she  managed  him  as  easily  as  she  could 
itwirl  her  fini^-ers. 


216  ''  CALAIS-MORALE." 

In  the  old  country,  at  the  depots,  all  is  system  and 
quiet ;  not  a  word  is  said.  You  choose  your  own  cab  ; 
a  printed  ticket  of  the  tariff  is  handed  to  you,  and  there 
is  no  jabber  with  hackmen,  or  the  noisy  agents  of 
hotel-keepers.  I  wonder  why  Americans,  who  travel 
so  much  abroad,  do  not  insist  that  our  railroads  shall 
adopt  this  sensible,  easy  way.  At  Washington  City, 
D.  C,  on  the  arrival  of  the  trains,  the  scramble  and 
yelling,  make  one  think  of  madmen,  and  recalls  the 
saying:  "that  a  lunatic  asylum  is  a  kind  of  hospital, 
where  detected  lunatics  are  sent  by  those  who  have  had 
the  adroitness  to  conceal  their  infirmity." 

The  cab-hire  is  about  one-fourth  what  it  cost  in  New 
York. 

By  stopping  on  the  way,  I  had  missed  my  room  at 
the  Hotel  de  Lille  et  Albeon  ;  but  I  got  one  room  next 
door,  at  the  ''  Gem  Hotel,"  Oxford  et  Cambridge. 

Mr.  Armor  and  family,  had  to  go  to  the  Hotel  *'Etat 
Unis." 

This  accident  alone,  caused  the  only  real  romance  of 
my  life,  and  if  all  the  facts  and  truths  that  occurred  to 
me,  and  before  my  own  eyes,  whilst  at  this  hotel,  could 
be  narrated,  they  would  be  considered  by  all  readers 
fictitious,  and  would  require  a  large  book  to  contain 
them.  I  wrote  four  hundred  and  forty-five  pages,  con- 
densed, as  they  daily  occurred.  This  manuscript  was- 
lost. 

To  describe  one-half  of  my  experience,  I  would  have 
to  write  the  Arabian  Knights,  in  Paris.  I  will  not  at- 
tempt it,  but  will  slightly  touch  upon  some  of  these 
occurrences : 


2ir 

Paris  is  the  perfect  contrast  of  London  and  Liverpool. 

The  atmosphere  is  clear,  the  houses  are  built  of  light 
stone ;  there  is  no  srnoky  heavens,  no  dingy  brick 
houses  and  narrow  crooked  streets  ;  the  boulevards  are 
indescribable,  as  well  as  the  order,  quiet,  and  good  be- 
havior of  everybody;  the  freedom  from  fires  and  from 
thieves  and  robbers  is  remarkable.  The  cuisine  is  per- 
fect, although,  there  were  said  to  be  one  hundred  thou- 
sand strangers  in  Paris  at  the  Exposition  ;  yet  I  could 
scarcely  distinguish  them.  Only  the  Chinese,  Arabs, 
Turks,  Greeks,  and  other  foreigners,  whose  dress  desig- 
nated them  on  the  place  of  the  Exposition,  were  ob- 
served ;  all  others  were  French  to  me. 

My  chance  hotel,  corner  of  Eue  St.  Honore  and  Rue 
de  Algers,  was  a  gem  ;  everything  as  perfect  as  I  would 
have  it.  "  Madame  Melot "  was  the  hostess ;  Louis, 
who  spoke  most  excellent  English,  the  man  servant ; 
Marie,  the  concierge,  and  Lei  a,  a  young  Swiss  girl,  the 
chambermaid. 

I  told  Louis  I  would  take  breakfast  at  eight-and-a- 
half  A.  M.,  my  dinner  at  three  p.  m.,  and  eat  all  my 
meals  at  the  hotel,  provided  he  did  not  vary  more  than 
five  minutes  at  any  meal.  If  he  did,  I  should  take  my 
meals  at  the  restaurant,  as  I  rarely  eat  meats  of  any 
kind. 

I  gave  Louis  two  francs,   a   gold  five-franc  for  the 
cook,  and  a  silver  fork  I  had  carried  through  the  war  to- 
rub  up,  and  said  to  him  that,  were  I  the  Emperor,  I  would 
make  every  man  punctual  or  wear  a  watch    in    his  hat. 
I  then  gave  him    mj^   bill  of   fare: 

Breakfast — Tea,  bread,  butter,  two   fresh   eggs,   soft 


218 

boiled  in    shell,   with    salt,    honey,  grapes,  and  demi- 
bottle   "  Vin  Ordinaire  "  (the  first  I  ever  drank.) 

Dinner — Half  of  a  roasted  capon,  bread,  butter, 
pears,  cream  cheese,  coffee,  and  demi-bottle  "  Vin 
Ordinaire.''^ 

I  neither  ate  or  drank  anything  after  dinner  until 
next  morning's  breakfast.  I  am  convinced  that  much 
of  our  health  depends  on  what  we  eat  and  when  we 
eat.  If  I:s"apoleon  the  First  said  he  lost  a  battle  by 
eating  a  bad  dinner,  we  cannot  expect  freedom  from 
the  ills  that  all  "  flesh  is  heir  to." 

As  this  was  the  first  time  in  my  life  that  I  had  time 
and  leisure  to  eat  what  and  when  I  choose,  I  made  use 
of  it ;  and  can  say,  truly,  that  during  the  months  I 
remained  in  Paris,  I  was  not  only  cheerful,  but  never 
felt  a  moment's  depression,  either  in  mind  or  body;  my 
mind  ever  clear,  and  my  recollection  perfect. 

I  am  persuaded  that  too  much  grease  is  hurtful  to 
our  delicate  machinery,  and  that  both  the  science  and 
art  of  running  our  own  machines  is  too  much  neg- 
lected, whilst  we  are  learning  to  run  other  machines, 
made  necessary  for  livelihood. 

My  breakfasts  and  dinners  were  of  the  same  viands 
mentioned  daring  the  months  I  remained  at  this  hotel. 
I  ate  alone,  and  my  meals  were  punctually  served. 

Mr.  Calder's  letter  came,  as  I  had  written  in  Rouen, 
punctually,  with  the  printed  list  of  the  nine  ladies  here- 
tofore mentioned  in  this  book,  to  get  up  the  asylum 
in  Charleston,  S.  C,  with  subscribers'  names,  &c. 

This  was  my  first  effort  for  a  public  charity.  Mr. 
'Calder's  kindness  and    attention  to  my  affairs,  and  the 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  219 

fact  that  I  had  much  leisure,  for  the  first  time  in  my 
life,  had  induced  me  to  write  the  letter  from  Rouen 
already  mentioned.  I  had  not  a  sini^le  acquaintance 
in  Paris,  and,  consequently,  my  chances  for  getting 
money  for  this  object  were  not  bright. 

However,  the  next  evening,  being  in  the  sitting- 
room  of  the  Hotel  de  Lille  et  Albion  (next  door 
to  my  hotel),  I  overheard  a  gentleman  say  that 
E.  Campbell,  the  millionaire  of  St.  Louis,  Missouri, 
was  at  the  Hotel  Athen?e.  His  brother,  Hugh  Camp- 
bell, was  a  merchant  of  Philadelphia,  in  1836,  and  was 
my  chief  friend  there,  and  my  adviser  when  I  laid  in 
my  stocks  of  goods.  He  had  retired,  and  was  living 
with  his  brother.  I  had  a  nice  letter  from  him  after  the 
war.  It  occurred  to  me  that  this  was  a  chance  for  the 
widows  and  orphans.  I  went  to  his  hotel,  but  found 
that  he  had  gone  to  Xice  to  spend  the  winter.  I  was 
disappointed,  and  began  to  wonder  where  I  should  make 
my  second  trial  for  this  object. 

I  have  mentioned,  somewhere  in  these  writings,  that, 
when  a  boy,  my  rule  was  strike  liigli,  if  I  lost  my 
hatchet.  So  I  concluded  to  write  to  Kapoleon,  the 
Emperor,  as  the  Empress  was  reported,  by  Galignani, 
to  have  gone  to  I^ice,  with  the  Prince  Imperial,  for  his 
health.  I  should  have  preferred  writing  to  her  on  this 
subject.  I  had  been  in  Paris  not  quite  one  week,  and 
I  wrote  about  as  follows : 

Paris,  Oct.  12th,  1867.  > 

6  A.  M.        ] 

L.  Empereur: 

I  know  the  brave  are  charitable,  and  have  a  sigh  for 
the  widow,  and  a  tear  for  the  orphan.     Your  Majesty 


220  <'  CALAIS-MORALE.-' 

will  allow  me  the  honor,  though  an  outcast  Virginian^ 
to  enclose  this  printed  paper  from  Charleston,  S.  C.  I 
saw  it  bv  accident  in  the  hands  of  an  Englishman  in 
Liverpool.  I  know  most  of  the  ladies,  whose  names- 
are  signed  to  the  petition.  I  saw  the  first  bomb-shell 
fired  at  Fort  Sumter ;  was  in  Charleston  during  its  bom- 
bardment, and  the  last  battle  of  this  revolution  was 
fought  upon  my  property,  which  was  consumed  by  the 
enemy,  after  Gen.  Lee's  surrender.  I  have  been  in 
Charleston  the  two  winters  which  have  passed  since  its 
re-occupation,  and  ray  greatest  pleasure  has  been,  that 
I  had  a  little  left,  with  which  to  help  those  in  actual 
need  of  food.  Many  of  these  people  have  French 
blood  in  their  veins. 

May  I  have  the  honor  and  the  pleasure,  of  same  no- 
tice from  you  on  this  subject,  and  this  appeal  to  you  is 
entirely  my  own  idea  on  my  part.  I  do  hope  the  ob- 
ject will  make  my  intrusion  plausible. 

I  am  now,  and  have  ever  been,  the  admirer  of,  and 
the  well  wisher  to  those  who  bear  your  name. 

w.  n.  WESSON. 

Reference : 
Brown,  Shipley  &   Co.,  Liverpool,  England. 
James  Calder,     .     .     .         do.  do. 


LETTERS  FROM  THE  FRENCH  CABINET. 


On  the  19th  day  of  October,  1867,  Marie,  the  con- 
cierge, handed  me  a  letter,  stamped  in  red  letters  on  the 
corner  of  the  envelope  :  "  Cabinet  L.  Empereur,"  also, 
stamped  in  red  letters,  tlie  date,  and  in  a  circle,  (part  of 
which  I  cannot  read)  and  addressed  to 


"CALAIS-MORALE."  221 

Monsieur  WESSON,   (W.  11.) 

Hotel  Oxford  et  Cambridge, 
Oeiitre  Seines,  Paris. 


Cabinet  de  L'  Empereur. 
No. 

Le  Chef  du  Cabinet  de  L'   Empereur  a  rhonneur  de  vous 
prevenir  que,  par  ordre  de  8a  Majeste,  votre  demande. 

Du  16,  8,  67. 
dont  le  Cabinet   est    raaintenant    entierement   dessaisi,  a 
€te  transmiso  a  P  examen  de  M.  le  Ministre  de  la  Maison  de 
r  Empereur. 

Contes   pieces   ou    reclamations  doivent   etre   adressees 
desormais. 

Palais  des  Tuileries  le  19,  8th,  18G7. 

M.  Wesson,  a  Department. 


[teanslatiox.] 
Mr.  Wesson — 

Fpom    Department : 

The  Chief  of  the  Cabinet  of  the  Emperor  has  tin?  honor 
to  inform  3^ou  that  by  his  Majesty's  order,  your  demand  of 
the  16th  of  October,  1867,  with  which  the  Cabinet  has  nothing 
to  do  now,  as  it  has  been  handed  to  the  Ministers  of  the 
Emperor's  household  to  be  examined. 

Every  and  any  letter  or  claim  is  to  be  directed  in  fu- 
ture to  *         * 


On  the  13th  of  November  1867,  a  letter  with  a  large 
black  seal,  and  stamped,  was  handed  to  me  as  my  hotel 
by  the  concierge  : 


999 


Ministry  de  la 

Maison  le  TEmpereur, 

et  des  Beaux  Art. 


CALAIS-MORALE.' 

[envelope.] 


Service  de  lEmpereur, 

Ministre  de  la 

Maison  de  rEmpereur, 

de  des  Beaux-Art. 


MONSIEUR  WESSON, 

Hotel  Oxfokd  et  de  Cambridge, 
Rue  d'Alorer,  Paris. 


Ministere  d  la  Maison  de  rEmpereur, 

et  des  Beaux  arts.  Secretaire  General. 

Palais  des  Tuileries,  13  Nov.  1867. 

MONSLEfR  : 

J'ai  sous  les  yeux  la  lettre,  que  vous  m'avez  adressee  a 
I'effet  d'obtiner  une  allocation  de  la  munificence  Imperial, 
en  faveur  d'un  asile  etabli  a  Charleston,  Caroline  du  sud, 
et  destine  a  recevoir  les  neuves  et  les  filles  des  soldats  tues 
dans  la  deniere  guerre  Americaine. 

Mr.  le  Docteur  Conneau,  Directeur  du  service  des  Dous 
&  Secours  est  exclusivement  charge  de  prende  les  ordres  de 
Leurs  Majestes  pour  la  repartition  du  credit  affecte  aux 
actes  de  munificence ;  et  c'est,  en  consequence  a  ce  bait 
fonctionnaire  generous  pouvez  soumetre  immedeamont  s'il  y 
a  lieu,  I'examen,  de  cette  affaire. 

Recevez,  Monsieur,  1' assurance  de  ma  consideration 
distingue. 

Le  Marecbal  de  France,  Minister  de  la  maison  de  I'Em- 
pereur  etdes  Beaux  Arts. 

(Signed)  VAILLANT. 

A    Monsieur      Wessoji,    Hotel   cV  Oxford  tt    de    Cambridge 
Rue  cT Alger,  Paris. 


*'  CALAIS-MORALE."  223 

On  my  return  from  Rome,  Italy,  in  April,  1868,  the 
following  letter  from  G.  T.  Conneau  was  banded  me 
at  the  office  of  Hotel  de  Lille  et  Albion  : 

[envelope.] 

Rec'd  Cabinet  de  L'  Empereur.  Paris,  Teings  des  catn, 

MONSIEUR  WESSON, 

Rue  St.  Harvaie  223, 

Paris. 


Paris,  Le  12,  Fcvrier,  1868. 

Cabinet  de  I'Empereur, 

Direction  des  Dous  et  Secours, 

192  Rue  Rivali: 
Monsieur  : 

L'objet  de  la  requete  que  vous  avcz  adresse  a  San  Majeste 
L'  Empereur  en  faveur  des  veuves  et  des  orphelins  de  la 
dernier  'guerre  d'Amerique  ne  rentrant  pas  dans  ine& 
attributions,  Je  n'en  pu  avoiret  Je  n'ai  pas  en  etfet  les 
pieces  que  vous  me  reclamez  par  votre  lettre  de  7  courrant, 

II  conviens  dans  cette  circonstance  de  les  reclame 
directemens  a  la  persoune  que  vous  avez  charge  de  votre 
requeste  en  Decembre  dernier. 

Recevez  Monsieur  1' assurance  de  ma  consideration  la 
plus   distingue  La  Senateur  direction  Dous  et    Secours. 

S.  T.  CONNEAU. 


Dr.  Conneau's  office  was  near  my  hotel ;  however,  I  did 
not  go  to  see  him;  as  the  tenor  of  his  letters,  if  any  suc- 
cess, the  directions  were  to  send  them  direct.  Messrs. 
"W.  C.  Bee&  Co.  had  written  me  in  the  meantinie.     The 


224 

Asylum  was  established,  and  Mrs.  Snowden,  its  presi- 
dent, had  brought  three  thousand  dollars  to  deposit  with 
his  firm.  The  sympathy  of  the  French  with  the  cause, 
and  the  loriter,  was  as  obvious  as  the  day,  and  continued 
to  increase  as  long  as  he  remained  in  Paris. 

During  my  early  hours  of  the  morning,  when  my 
mind  and  body  were  rested,  my  ideas  clearer  than  at 
any  other  period  of  the  twenty-four  hours,  not  counting 
letters  in  this  spare  time,  four  hundred  and  forty-five 
pages  were  written  ;  most  of  the  matter,  the  modes  of 
the  French,  to  show  me  their  sympathy  in  pantomine, 
as  I  did  not  understand  their  language.  We  all  have 
plenty  of  time  in  the  twenty-four  hours  to  do  most  any- 
thing, if  we  would  regulate  and  use  it  with  some  care 
and  thought,  as  we  usually  do  in  regard  to  our  money! 

Some  say,  oh !  we  are  compelled  to  be  the  slaves  of 
custom,  and  to  do  as  the  majority  of  other  people  of  the 
same  class  do,  or  be  set  down  as  eccentric;  pointed  at, 
and  talked  about,  &c.  Eut  recollect,  the  eagle 'does  not 
associate  with  other  birds ;  is  seen  alone,  and  is  differ- 
ent in  his  habits  from  other  birds,  yet  we  consider  him 
the  king  of  his  kind. 

From  my  boyhood,  I  have  tried  to  practice  the  com- 
mon-sense rule,  the  way  to  please  one-half  of  the  world 
is  not  to  care  what  the  other  half  says.  To  prove  my 
sayings,  even  in  Paris,  I  had  a  particular  friend  from 
England  to  dine  with  me,  of  course,  at  his  hour  of  six 
P.  M.,  with  distinctly  the  understanding  that  I  was  to 
sit  at  the  table  with  him,  and  not  cat.  Indeed,  this  was 
the  only  time  during  my  sojourn  at  this  hotel  that  I 
saw  any  of  the  guests  of  this  establishment.  Yes,  diet 
and  quiet  are  vastly  important  to  our  health,  and  more 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  225 

«o  to  our  dreams,  and  if  my  manuscript  had  not  been 
•destroyed,  many  would  have  placed  my  facts  as  the  fic- 
tions of  dreams. 

I  paid  one  franc  each  for  five  bottles  of  distilled  wa- 
ter, that  my  dreams  might  not  be  effected  by  the  lime- 
stone water  of  Paris. 

And  although  I  paid  each  morning  for  three  cups  of 
tea,  I  never  drank  but  one  ;  would  not  have  my  day- 
dreams affected  with  even  too  much  paid-for  tea.  My 
landlady  appreciated  my  consistency,  and  the  last  month 
I  remained  with  her,  always  sent  a  small  silver  tea-pot 
that  contained  only  one  cup  of  tea,  though  I  paid  one 
franc  as  usually  for  the  three  cups. 

Galignani  would  have  me  carry  my  letter  to  the  Em- 
peror in  the  Tuilleries  myself,  instead  of  sending  it,  and 
as  my  valet  said,  I  should  have  written  to  the  Impera- 
tdce  instead  of  the  Emperor.  I  wrote  her  an  apology 
for  not  doing  so,  and  enclosed  to  her  the  photographs 
of  Miss  Gelzer,  (the  head  of  my  "Fills  des  Regiment,") 
and  Stonewall  Jackson.  The  next  day  two  full  por- 
traits, with  regal  ornaments  of  Her  Majesty  and  the 
I^mperor  were  placed  in  the  show-window  of  the  store 
L'Empereur  de  Frangais,  opposite  my  window  where 
.1  sat  to  take  my  meals.  The  portraits  attracted  great 
attention  and  could  be  seen  nowhere  else  in  Paris; 
and  then  two  pots  of  flowers  were  placed  at  my  egress 
from  the  hotel,  name,  veronique;  (in  flower  language, 
ffdelity) ;  and  again  other  flowers  equally  significant. 
I  had  to  send  to  London  to  buy  an  English  language  of 
Howers  to  interpret  them.  Myself  and  valet  was  much 
put  to  it  to  get  the   name  of  the  flower  "  Yeronique," 

'Which  grew  only  at  the  Tuilleries  and  Palais  Royal; 

15 


226  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

and  after  we  bad  used  a  dav  or  two  huntino:  the  name 
without  success,  we  were  leaning  on  the  iron  rail  which 
protected  the  flowers  near  the  Palace,  and  a  woman 
walked  up  from  a  distance,  and  in  good  English  told  us 
the  name  of  this  flower. 

I  had  a  modest,  brown  silk  umbrella  and  requested 
Marie  to  have  a  leather  tassel  put  through  the  handle. 
She  kept  the  umbrella  two  days,  and  after  that  thous- 
ands of  the  same  kind  appeared  on  the  streets,  more 
particularly  near  ni}-  hotel ;  some  women  had  two  or 
three.  Before  this  I  had  scarcely  seen  an  umbrella  of 
any  kind.  1  walked  with  mine  every  m.orning,  and  in 
two  weeks  I  hid  my  umbrella,  and  all  these  umbrellas 
disappeared  from  the  streets.  Two  years  afterwards  I 
was  on  Broadway,  New  York,  and  wished  to  get  Messrs. 
Wright  &  Brothers,  the  lage  umbrella  house,  to  replace 
the  leather  tassel  which  had  been  lost.  When  I  took 
the  umbrella  to  them,  the  man  asked  me  if  I  did  not 
get  this  umbrella  in  Paris..  I  said  yes;  he  said  there 
were  no  others  in  this  country  like  mine  in  color  or 
qualit}^  except  a  large  quantity  of  them  that  vvere  sent 
from  Paris  to  Kew  York,  slightly  damaged,  and  sold  at 
auction.  I  have  tried  every  city  to  get  silk  of  the  color 
of  mine,  to  mend  with,  but  could  get  none. 

I  had  Marie  to  have  crepe  put  on  my  hat ;  she  kept 
my  hat  three  days,  the  next  day  was  the  reception  of  the 
Emperor  Joseph  of  Austria,  and  five  hundred  thousand 
persons  were  said  to  be  present  at  the  field  of  Mars,  two 
miles  from  the  city,  besides  the  sixty-five  thousand  troops 
present.  I  paid  six  dollars  for  an  open  carriage  to  visit 
the  place,  and  took  Mr.  D.,  of  Virginia,  and  my  valet, 
Newhouse,  along.  I  was  immediately  struck  with  the 
vast  number  of  hats  with  fresh  crepe  on  them  in   the 


"CALAIS-MORALE."  227 

crowd  as  wo  went,  and  called  frequent  attention  to  tie 
tliini>;,  and  also  for  tlieni  witlinie  to  estiniate  the  number 
creped,  which  none  estimated  less  than  fifty  thous- 
and. Thev  do  things  in  grand  style  in  Paris,  and  it 
must  be  a  stupid  man  who  has  the  favor  of  the  King 
and  that  shown  every  day  in  the  truest  language  of  man, 
and  neither  to  understand  or  appreciate  it. 

Paintings  were  every  day  placed  in  the  windows  of 
noted  picture-dealers,  which  conveyed  to  me  a  stronger 
language  than  words  could  do.  My  own  portrait  was 
gotten,  no  doubt,  from  a  photograph  gallery,  and 
iigared  with  others,  to  make  me  doubly  sure  that  I  was 
not  reading  fictions  of  my  own  imagination.  The 
paintings  were  truly  elegant,  and  I  got  an  unknown 
party  to  go  and  inquire  the  price  of  one.  It  was  six 
thousand  francs. 

I  never  went  inside  of  any  of  these  stores,  and  looked 
upori  everything  with  Indian  indifierence.  One  of 
these  pictures,  of  two  blue  bull-dogs,  with  a  blaze  in 
their  faces,  I  could  not  read,  and  took  them  to  be  figura- 
tive. The  next  morning,  in  one  of  the  usual  panto- 
mines  for  the  half  hour,  wiiilst  I  breakfiisted,  a  well- 
dressed  young  man  brought  two  dogs,  the  very  counter- 
part of  the  paintings,  and  unleashed  tiiem  under  my 
window. 

The  next  morning,  as  I  took  my  usual  mornino:  walk 
near  the  Palace  door,  I  heard  something  behind  me,  and 
the  same  two  blue  bull-dogs  came  up  to  me,  smelt  of 
me,  and  passed  under  the  arch  and  into  the  Palace. 
The  Gens  d'  Armes  always  w^ent  ofi'  the  grounds  under 
this  arch,  wiien  I  made  mj^  appearance.  There  was  no 
person    near.     The   queer   dogs   seemed   to   smell   the 


228 

ground  as  they  came,  and  as  they  went  into  the  Palace. 

I  never  was  afraid  of  dogs,  and  have,  on  first  sight, 
put  my  hand  into  the  barking  mouths  of  two  of  (said 
to  be)  the  sharpest  dogs  in  Eichmond,  and  I  scarcely 
ever  saw  a  dog  of  pure  breed  that  was  not  disposed  to 
follow  me ;  indeed,  to  have  me  for  his  master. 

As  Mr.   D •  was  in  the    cab  when   we  went  to 

the  reception  of  the  Emperor  of  Austria,  and  who 
would  return  to  Virginia  soon,  I  said  to  him :  "  The 
Emperor  of  Austria  must  be  in  mourning;  see  the 
endless  crepe  on  hats." 

I  was  too  modest  to  tell  him  of  my  letter,  and  that  I 
thought  that  I  had,  indirectly,  caused  all  of  this  crepe. 
I  fear  he  would  have  reported  me  king  crazy. 

I  am  now  confident  of  the  correctness  of  my  supposi- 
tion, and  1  had  many  much  more  expensive  signs 
afterwards  of  French  sympathy  for  me  in  high  places. 

I  was  usually  accompanied  by  my  valet,  or  interpre- 
ter, JN'ewhouse,  an  Austrian,  of  Vienna.  He  knew 
many  languages,  and  had  been  valet  for  some  Prince, 
and  knew  too  well  the  habits  of  his  Emperor,  Joseph, 
w^hich  were  not  over-creditable,  even  in  a  King.  He 
said,  if  I  wished  to  see  more  of  the  Emperors  that 
night,  we  would  attend  the  Emperor's  Theatre,  at  the 
Palais  Royal. 

I  requested  him  to  buy  tickets,  and,  after  we  had 
visited  the  "  den "  of  the  blind  fiddlers,  under  the 
Palais  Royal  (an  attraction  for  strangers),  and  deep 
underground,  with  good  music,  a  wild  Indian,  who 
"  drums  it  well,"  and  plenty  of  cofiee  and  Eau  de  Vie, 
we  attended  the  King's  Theatre,  saw  the  "  Emperors," 


229 

heard  and  saw  the   play,  and  I  did   not  understand  one 
word  the  phiyers  said. 

Mons.  VaiHant's  word  executed  the  will  of  the  Em- 
peror, and  Paris  was.  the  chess  board  ;  and  as  the  Em- 
press, no  doubt,  governed  the  Emperor,  she  could  get 
up  the  grandest  of  pantomines  that  money  and  powers 
could  produce.  It  was  amusement  for  all;  at  least 
something  new,  which,  if  of  merit,  takes  quicker  and  is 
better  acted  in  Paris,  no  doubt,  than  in  any  other  city 
in  the  world. 

It  is  true,  I  had  to  play  my  part  alone;  but,  true  la- 
dies can  always  set  a  blunderer  on  his  feet,  as  a  photo- 
graph lady  did  the  writer,  who  went  with  a  Virginia 
friend,  to  a  noted  gallery,  to  have  photographs  taken. 
The  floor  was  w^axed  as  slick  as  ice,  and  the  lirst  step  I 
made  w^as  a  slip.  I  remarked  that  I  was  stupid.  A 
lady,  who  w^^sin  the  act  of  going  from  this  room,  turned 
round,  and  said,  in  good  English,  "you  are  not  stupid." 
My  movements  were  always  foretold  ;  spies  I  knew  were 
over  me,  and  my  writings  left  on  my  table.  To  Louis 
and  Newhouse,  at  least,  my  movements  were  known 
for  a  day  ahead,  which  was  proved  to  me,  over  and  over 
again,  every  day. 

The  fac-simile  of  the  bleeding  deer'shead,  which 
sprung  up  through  the  floor  in  the  Rue  Choisel ;  the 
constant  changing  pantomine  before  my  window,  dur- 
ing the  morning  and  afternoon  meals,  in  the  language 
of  ^sop,  which  book  I  kept  on  my  table,  as  well  as 
wrote  down  my  knowledge  of,  and  my  interpretation  of 
the  paintings  and  pantomines  in  the  streets.  The  paint- 
ing of  a  lion,  as  large  as  life,  that  was  held  up  to  my 
window  for  a  moment;   the   carriage   with  servant  in* 


230 

roval  livery,  that  stopped  the  horses  to  a  walk,  and  turned 
them  slowly  to  pass  under  my  window,  and  the  omni- 
bus with  twelve  boys,  peculiarly  dressed  for  school,  that 
stopped  every  morning  at  precisely  the  same  time,  and 
one  of  them  would  get  out.  The  Zoo-trope  and  the 
large  number  of  omnibuses,  which  ply  on  Rue  St. 
llonore,  all  stopping  from  a  trot  to  a  walk  (not  at  a 
crossing)  when  I  was  in  my  room  at  four  p.  M.,  and 
many  other  things  done  by  pedestrians,  even  to  draw 
tear3  from  my  eyes,  but  too  many  for  me  to  attempt  to 
describe  here.  The  hearty  sympathy  of  the  Parisians  I 
did  acknowledge  and  appreciate,  as  the  greatest  won- 
der of  my  life,  and  which  I  can  never  forget  whilst  my 
mind  and  memory  remain  sound.  I  must  mention  the 
pantomine  of  the  Vendress,  who  sold  me  the  two  cakes 
of  "  Queen  Isabella  Soap"  at  two  francs  each,  (as  I  had 
failed  to  be  pleased  with  "Lubin's  best  soap")  in  Rue 
Choisel. 

The  white  and  black  cats  which  played  in  the  gem  of 
a  reception  room  in  my  hotel,  directly  opposite  the  win- 
dow, in  which  Were  their  Majesties  pictures,  received 
their  full  share  of  attention. 

The  two  cabs,  with  grey  horses,  (I  rode  in  cabs  only 
drawn  by  grey  horses)  that  were  placed  every  evening 
under  my  window,  with  their  heads  facing  each  other 
-on  Rue  St.  Honore,  meant  something,  as  well  as  the 
angel-looking  bo}'  I  found  at  my  side,  when  I  awoke, 
at  the  Protestant  Eglese,  on  Rue  Josepliine.  The  dis- 
cordant music  on  the  seventh  etage  of  my  hotel,  and 
the  sweetest,  indeed,  most  heavenly  music,  that  I  ever 
heard,  and  which  I  heard  daily  as  I  went  to  my  dinner, 
and  never  eould  place,  and  which  so  entranced  my  im 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  231 

agiaation,  that  my  mind  would  revert  to  good  women, 
flowers  and  my  dinner.  The  man}'  hundred  mysteries^ 
which  I  saw  in  this  pUxy,  from  October  to  January,  con- 
tinuously crowded  my  manuscript,  which  was  con- 
sumed by  fire,  or  some  other  evil  spirit,  the  plague 
of  womankind  ;  and,  if  I  pass  here  in  my  notings, 
from  the  sublime  to  the  ridiculous,  from  the  pal- 
ace to  the  kitchen,  from  grave  to  gay,  my  readers 
will  please  recollect,  that  I  am  only  noting  and  sketch- 
ing the  most  salient  points  and  parts  of  things  which 
were  novel  and  unique  in  a  great  city,  with 
great  and  little  people,  and  that  our  communica- 
tions were  not  in  the  language  of  words,  but  from  the 
great  book  of  nature,  which  was  written  in  the  senses 
of  all  mankind  at  the  beginning,  and  which  no  pen  is 
competent  to  describe,  in  characters  fully  intelligible  to 
those  who  were  not  present  at  the  time. 

I  hired  Jules  Lorrillieux,  Gahgnani's  cashier  (as  he 
advertised  to  do  so),  to  give  me  lessons  in  French,  two 
evenings  of  each  week.  One  evening  he  could  not 
come,  and  I  received  the  following  note  from  him: 


Immediate. 


[envelope.] 
W.  H.  AVESSO^,  Esq., 


Hotel  de  Lille  et  Albion, 
Room  2G.  Paris. 

Galigxani's  Messenger,  i 

English  Daily  I^ewspaper,      > 
224  Rue  de  Ritoli,  Paris.  ) 
Cher  Monsieur  : 

I  beg  to  state,  with  regret,  that  it  is  utterly  impossi- 


232 

ble  to  come  to  jour  apartment  to-night,  as  a  dispatch^ 
calls  me  home  immediately  after  leaving  my  office. 

Yours,  respectfully, 

JULES  LORRILLIEUX. 


I  did  not  move  to  this  hotel  until  Januaty,  1868,  as 
it  was  a  warmer  and  more  modern  structure,  and  I  had 
to  procure  a  room  for  an  expected  guest  of  my  own. 
family. 

I  always  had  the  peculiarity  of  neither  carrying  let- 
ters of  introduction  or  washing  to  visit  men  high  in 
office,  or  even  to  speak  to  them,  unless  under  peculiar 
circumstances.  I  believe  the  reason  was,  I  feared  I 
might  be  supposed  to  want  money  or  office.  Hence,  I 
never  saw  General  R.  E.  Lee,  a  man  I  esteemed,  or 
President  Davis,  though  I  was  often  in  the  same  town, 
and  had  many  opportunities  of  seeing  and  being  intro- 
duced to  them.  This  feeling  came  near  preventing  me 
from  seeing  the  old  Pope  of  Rome,  in  1868,  though  I 
had  cherished  the  idea  since  boyhood.  I  refused  to 
visit  him  with  a  lady  and  two  gentlemen,  because  eti- 
quette demanded  I  should  wear  a  swallowMailed  Goat^ 
I  had  none,  nor  did  I  care  to  buy  or  hire  one  for  my 

visit. 

Oh  !  could  I  adhere  and  firmly  stick 

To  good  resolves  when  made, 
And  from  each  day  a  motto  pick. 
That's  by  experience  staid. 

.  I  will  copy  part  of  a  letter,  I  wrote  to  a  friend  at 
home,  to  show  the  state  of  my  mind  and  body,  after 
a  few  days'  sojourn  in  Paris,  and  in  contact  with  a. 
cheerful,  industrious  and  polite  people  : 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  233- 

Paris,  October  11,  1867. 
C.  M.  W.: 

You  will  be  probiibly  pleased  to  see  my  let- 
ters dated  from  Paris,  France,  a  city  which  lies  be- 
yond the  broad  Atlantic  and  British  Isles.  Here,  bless- 
ed with  security  and  that  sympathy  for  the  unjustly  op- 
pressed, peculiar  to  this  people,  I  double  my  raptures 
by  communicating  them  to  you.  The  mind  sympathiz- 
ing with  the  freedom  of  the  body,  my  whole  soul  is 
dilated  in  gratitude,  love  and  praise.  The  contrast  is, 
indeed,  beyond  my  expression.  The  sad  scenes  of  a 
four  years'  war,  and  the  despotism  of  the  three  years 
since,  under  which  poverty,  want,  crime  and  every  vice 
which  rise  and  flourish  under  the  government  of  spite- 
ful conquerors,  with  a  mobocracy  composed  of  our  for- 
mer slaves  and  viler  whites,  our  plantations  going  to 
decay,  and  although,  in  many  cases,  the  negroes  are  dis- 
posed to  remain  and  work  the  old  homesteads,  yet  the 
pernicious  laws  which  have  been  made  to  elevate  them, 
tend  rapidly  to  their  demoralization,  aided  by  the  Car- 
pet-Bag agent,  who  demagogue  these  baby  Africans 
into  *' Loyal  Leagues"  and  royal  plagues.  From  this 
severe  home-pressure,  I  feel  almost  magically  relieved, 
and  find  here  order,  law  and  high  civilization,  and  a 
world  worth  living  in.  Indeed,  I  cannot  help  loving 
this  people.  They  have  many  pet  cats  and  dogs,  all  of 
which  appear  to  be  gentlemen  of  their  Idnd,  and  really 
I  have  been  in  contact  with  so  many  villians  that  it  af- 
fords me  pleasure  to  seek  a  (jentle  animal  of  any  kind. 
This  bright,  cheerful,  gay  city  of  Paris  must  occasion- 
ally reflect  a  thought  to  the  despondent  and  care-worn 
faces  I  left    behind,  and  io  my  thoughts  add  a  sombre 


t234  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

hue  on  the  dihapitated  towns  and  country  places  through 
which  our  vandal  foes  swept  like  a  besom  of  destruc- 
tion. 

"There  is  no  solitude  on  earth  so  deep, 
As  that  w'here  raan  decrees  that  man  shall  weep." 

And  where  has  man  tried  more  to  foil 
The  laws  that  must  govern  those  who  toil  ? 
And  of  queer  acts,  they   could  do  no  w^orse 
Than  to  fix  the  cart  to  drive  the  horse. 
But  God  reigns,  and  at  His  pleasure  draws 
Greatest  good  from  man's  pernicious  laws. 

During  the  early  hours  of  morning  when  the  intri- 
<;ate  machinery  of  man  has  been  lubribricated  and  put 
in  order  by  refreshing  sleep,  and  the  owner  of  the  ma- 
chine is  never  idle  in  his  leisure,  he  can  play  with  his 
work,  as  ^^sop  says,  and  the  wisest  of  men  tells  us  to 
"  find  out  the  reason  of  things."  Allow^  me  to  say  that 
is  the  best  time  for  the  search,  and  I  have  always  used 
that  time  of  apparently  leisure  whilst  the  majority  of 
mankind  are  in  their  beds.  The  old  adage  says,  "  that 
he  who  rises  early  has  something  in  his  head,"  and  surely 
that  is  the  time  to  get  it  out. 

In  Paris  I  had  to  play  many  parts,  as  I  was  "  play- 
ing with  my  business,"  and  of  course,  had  many  inter- 
ludes in  my  plays,  as  they  do  in  opera.  It  cannot  be 
expected  that  I  can  condense  in  the  short  end  of  a  book 
either  a  continuous  story  or  complete  descriptions,  even 
the  most  readable  parts  I  acted  in,  and  beg  to  be  allowed 
to  hop,  skip  and  jump  over  the  surface  of  my  journey- 
ings  and  doings,  and  should  a  Monthly  Magazine,  pro- 
posed, be  a  fact,  I  may  fill  up  many  gaps,  made  neces- 
sary in  this  book  for  the  w^ant  of  space  or  room. 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  235 

I  h'dd  special  permission  to  smoke  in  and  leave  my 
tobacco  and  pipe  in  the  concierge's  office.  A  huge  black 
cat  always  sat  near  Marie,  the  conciers^e  of  tlie  Hotel 
Oxford  et  Cambridge.  I  frequently  phiced  half  a  franc 
on  the  cat's  head  to  see  her  tip  it  off  to  her  mistress. 
Feeling  a  little  mischievous  one  morning,  I  took  the 
cat  by  the  ears  (the  v^-ay  to  tame  them),  and  held  it  up 
to  the  horror  of  Marie.  I  made  Louis  tell  her  it  was  to 
show  her  how^  I  tamed  the  women  in  "  Amerique." 
After  this,  the  cat  would  come  to  me,  get  in  my  lap, 
and  tr}'  to  follow  me  up  stairs  to  my  breakfast.  How- 
ever, it  proved  to  be  Pauline's  cat,  the  ten  year  old 
daughter  of  Madame  Melot,  my  hostess.  Pauline  came 
into  the  office,  crying  and  knocking  about  the  candle- 
sticks and  looking  at  me.  I  called  Louis  to  tell  me  her 
trouble.  He  said  she  was  so  much  hurt  at  losinor  her 
cat's  affections.  I  told  him  to  tell  her  I  would  give  her 
a  white  cat,  a  white  rat  and  a  boquet,  if  she  would  make 
friends  with  me  and  kiss  me  too.  I  had,  unfortunately, 
said  I  had  not  yet  seen  a  woman  in  Paris  I  would  let 
kiss  me,  unless  it  was  Elise,  the  sales-woman  in  the 
store  over  the  way,  where  I  had  bought  all  my  stationery 
and  bijouterie,  and  I  had  not  made  up  my  mind  fully 
as  to  her. 

I  had  not  then  seen  the  Empress,  so  much  in  the 
picture  galleries  of  Versailles,  and  in  the  letter  of  apolo- 
gy to  her  about  not  writing  to  her  first  about  tho  Char- 
leston, South  Carolina,  charity,  I  apologized  also  for 
this  remark,  saying,  I  had  not  seen  her  Majesty  when  I, 
half  in  joke,  said  this  repulsive  word.  I  wrote  to  Diejipe, 
to  Madame  Gribon,  to  send  the  cat  she  gave  me.  It 
came.    I  then  bought  a  tame,  white  rat,  for  four  francs 


236  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

also  the  boqiiet,  which  made  Pauline  happy ;  and 
her  father  brought  the  rat  to  my  table  and  loosed  it  to 
see  it  run  among  the  cruets  in  the  castor. 

I  wrote  Madame  Gribon  all  about  this  farce,  and  re- 
turned to  her  in  the  basket  which  brought  the  beautiful 
white  cat,  the  most  perfect  specimen  of  art  I  ever  saw, 
an  artificial  rose,  the  Victoria  Kegina,  for  which  I  paid  a 
gold  IN^apoleon. 

Wrote  a  piece  of  "  caterel  "  and  gave  to  Pauline  to 
read  and  send  with  the  rose  in  the  basket,  which 
"  caterel "  made  some  noise  in  Paris.  Fashion  there 
says  great  praise  to  the  man  who  says  good  ildnjs ;  no 
scandal  to  the  man  whose  morals  are  not  good, 

I  own  up  to  flattering  Madame  Grebon,  (just  aleetle),, 
in  my  letter  to  her,  closing  Avith  this  sentence,  that 
"  friendship  and  flowers  were  the  chief  good  of  this 
world." 

If  we  do  not  keep  our  machines  in  order,  neither 
flowers  nor  friendship  can  charm,  not  only  our  diet  and 
quiet  should  have  due  attention,  but  the  clothes  we  wear 
to  protect  us  from  the  ever  changing  seasons  and 
weather ;  and  slight  neglect  in  this  thing  frequently 
brings  the  doctor  with  his  uncertain  medicines,  and 
many  a  sexton  has  gotton  a  job  of  work  which  a  slight 
precaution  might  have  delayed.  Indeed,  the  most  of 
us  are  so  careless  and  thoughtless  in  regard  to  the  preser- 
vation of  health,  that  the  Spartan  rule  of  fortifying  the 
system  from  youth  against  the  carelessness  of  age,  and 
a  dail}'  use  of  soap  and  water,  with  plenty  of- towels  and 
rubbing,  will  delay  the  sexton's  work  far  a  long  time, 
as  well  as  keep  the  person  in  better  condition  for  all 
work.     All    readers  of  the  Bible  should  not  for^^et  tlie 


237 

Hebrew  children  that  were  ordered  to  the  khig's  table, 
but  begged  to  be  allowed  to  eat  their  pulse  or  beans,  and 
after  a  fair  test  of  this  diet,  if  thej  did  not  look  as  well, 
and  as  fair,  as  the  Egyptians,  thej  would  then  eat  at  the 
king's  table.  First  the  qualit}',  next  the  cooking  of  the 
thing,  are  necessary  for  good  food.  Everything  brou^-ht 
for  food  into  the  market  of  Paris,  from  an  egg  up,  is 
examined  and  pajs  ("  octroi"  or)  duty.  Hence,  Paris 
has  the  two  first  named  requisites,  and  the  only  city  that 
T  ever  heard  of  that  carries  out  this  custom  and  law,  and 
certainly  no  city  I  ever  saw  compares  with  it  for  such 
che((2)  and  good  living.  These  facts,  I  have  no  doubt, 
add  much  to  the  cause  which  makes  this  people  ap- 
parently ever  cheerful,  polite  and  such  refined  and 
superior  artists. 

I  have  imagined  that  amongst  the  vast  number  of 
preachers  I  have  heard  preach,  that  some  of  the  ser- 
mons smacked  of  too  much  grease.  I  have  fancied,  too, 
that  in  my  travels,  that  I  have  seen  men,  women,  even 
babies,  that  carried  too  much  of  the  animal  on  their  per- 
sons, and  in  their  physiognomy,  and  that  the  Luzzaroni 
in  Naples  would  or  could  be  improved  by  more  ccrease 
internally,  and  more  soap  and  water  externally.  Indeed, 
I  have  heard  that  the  Hebrew  word  for  hog  and  scrofula 
-were  the.  same,  and  I  have  heard  the  cause  of  that  dis- 
ease being  so  prevalent  with  the  negro  race,  was  that 
they  fed  on  so  much  fat  bacon. 

Newhouse,  Louis,  and  Trappe,  my  restaurant  host  at 
Palais  Poyal,  helped  my  French  lessons  twice  a  week, 
from  Jules  Lorrillieux,  my  teacher,  and  Galignan's 
cashier.  But  my  francs  and  Kapoleons  always  spoke 
French  and  made  one  Frenchman  speak  the  English 
words  *'  I  know,"  the  first   he  ever  spoke,  also  ;  Pauline 


238  '•  CALAIS-MORALE." 

to  saj  in  English  ''lam  afraid,'^'  (the  only  English  words  I 
ever  heard  her  speak)  when  her  mother  sent  her  to  my 
dining  room  to  pay  me  the  kiss  she  owed  me  for  the 
white  cat.  She  came  near  me,  hut  would  not  bend  her 
neck.  I  made  no  advance  for  her  to  kiss  me.  Louis 
asked  her  why  she  did  not  kiss  me;  and  that  was  her  re- 
ply. I  then  said  I  would  forgive  the  debt,  and  "  to  pass 
on,  you  litte    dam-selle." 

Ignorantly,  but  fortunately,  I  practiced  the  highest 
etiquette  in  Paris,  looking  upon  all  the  women  with  per- 
fect indifference,  and  though  repeatedly  invited  and 
pressed  to  visit  some  of  the  handsomest  women  in  the 
city,  I  never  visited  one  of  them  during  all  of  my  stay 
in  that  fascinating  place. 

Major  Mortimer,  of  Cheltenham,  England,  spent  a 
week  in  Paris,  and  spent  nearly  every  evening  in  my 
room.  One  evening  I  agreed  to  go  with  him  to  the 
opera  to  hear  the  splendid  music,  and  Marie  sing, 
provided  he  would  walk  and  return  at  ten  o'clock.  He 
was  as  punctual  as  an  English  gentleman,  hut  kept  me 
up  talking  to  him  till  twelve  o'clock. 

He  purchased  some  of  the  rarest  things  I  ever  saw 
to  take  home  with  him,  and  which  he  could  not  pro- 
cure in  London.  His  only  sister  was  ill,  and  he  was 
called  home ;  but  said  he  would  write  to  me,  and 
wished  me  to  call,  on  my  return  at  Cheltenham  and  get 
assistance  for  the  Charleston  asylum,  and  be  introduced 
to  Queen  Victoria.  A  carbuncle  and  time  prevented 
my  acceptance  of  his  proffered  kindness. 

His  letter  came,  as  an  English  gentleman  had  prof- 
fered it  should  do,  which  is  as  follows  : 


239 
[envelope.] 
W.  H.  WESSON,  Esq., 

Hotel  Oxford  et  Cambridge, 

Corner  Kue  de  Alger  et  St.  Honors, 

Paris,  France. 


Cheltenham,  November  23,  1867,      > 
4  Exeter  Place.  ) 
W.  11.  Wesson,  Esq.  : 

Ml/  Dear  Sir — No  doubt  jou  are  looking  forward  to 
hearin/^  from  me,  having  given  you  a  promise,  which, 
be  assured,  I  will  fulfill.  We  were  not  long  acquainted, 
but  your  kind  and  amiable  disposition,  together  with 
your  cheerfulness  and  well-stored  mind,  left  an  impres- 
sion on.  me  that  can  rarely  be  made,  and  which  is  rarely 
found  in  our  associations  with  mankind. 

I  was  suddenly,  as  I  told  you,  called  away  from  Paris, 
so  many  matters  at  home  requiring  my  attention.  Here 
I  will  state  that  at  one  time  I  had  eight  trusteeships,  all 
in  my  own  family.  Is  not  that  alone  enough  to  occupy 
the  life  of  a  man?  Also  I  was  anxious  to  see  my  only 
surviving  sister,  whom  I  had  not  heard  from,  and,  for 
this  very  reason,  she  was  expecting  me  daily,  I  having 
stated  in  my  letter  to  her  that,  she  being  so  ill  (this  was 
on  my  arriving  in  Paris),  I  should  remain  but  a  week, 
which  period  would  suffice  to  see  the  Exposition,  how- 
ever. You  are,  surely,  aware  what  charms  that  beauti- 
ful city  has-^in  the  first  place,  promoting  and  giving 
such  health,  which  is  the  basis  and  rock  from  which 
springs  every  enjoyment  that  the  mind  produces.     You 


240  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

never  see  a  weakly  child  with  any  mind,  but  as  soon 
as  its  health  is  established,  with  proper  tuition  and  care, 
it  bursts  forth  as  the  sun's  influence  upon  a  flower,  in 
its  early  dawn  ;  and,  in  the  same  benign  manner,  does 
the  climate  of  Paris  act  on  one's  spirits,  ever  invigo- 
rating and  keeping  them  up;  whereas  here,  it  has  just 
the  contrary  effect — depressing  and  keeping  them  down. 
However,  it  gives  me  much  pleasure  to  believe  that,  as 
w^e  are  both  charmed  with  that  city,  there  is  very  little 
doubt  but  that  we  aliall  meet  again  before  long,  and 
listen  again  to  Marie  (what  singing!  in  what  sweet 
strains !)  I  will  here  make  a  remark,  and,  pray,  see  if 
you  can  find  anyone  who  will  bear  me  out  in  it.  It  is 
this :  She  was  inaccurate  in  her  intonation,  in  her  dis- 
cord to  an  octave.  She  had  very  tolerable  flexibility ; 
but,  more  than  this,  the  quality  of  her  voice  was  very 
^ood,  altogether  proving  her  capabilities  to  sustain  a  posi- 
tion in  a  second-class  opera  house. 

I  was  in  London  a  week,  but  just  got  home.  It  was 
very  cold  and  gloomy,  but  I  had  plenty  to  do,  or  should 
liave  written  to  you  from  my  club. 

My  cabinet  and  pictures  have  not  yet  arrived,  which 
I  am  rather  surprised  at,  having  given  particular  direc- 
tions to  Mr.  Smith,  25  Rue  Michodere,  a  street  close 
to  the  Italian  boulevard,  to  send  them  off  very  soon, 
and  to  see  to  the  packing,  which  was  done  by  an  embe- 
leau,  nearly  opposite  his  office,  by  name  Mom  an.  I 
have  written  to  a  friend  to  see  to  this,  and  should  he 
not  do  so,  I  shall  ask  you  to  do  me  that  iavor. 

I  must  get  Rousseau,  in  English,  you  being  such  an 
admirer  of  him. 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  241 

I  await  the  pleasure  of  a   letter  from  you.     Believe 
fiie,  my  dear  sir,  very  sincerely  yours, 

EDWARD  MORTIMER. 


My  Dear  Sir — I  never,  if  I  can  help  it,  say  "jood-bye 
in  person,  particularly  to  those  I  esteem  and  regard. 
I  am  off  for  England  this  day,  and  shall  always  have 
3'ou  in  my  remembrance  with  the  deepest  regard,  and 
when  I  get  home  wuU  write  to  you. 

Always  most  faithfully,  yours, 

EDWARD  MORTIMER. 


My  son  Charles  came  to  meet  me  in  February,  and  I 
Teluctantly  started  for  Rome,  via  Marseilles  and  the 
Mediterranean  steamers.  The  weather  continued  ver}' 
cold,  and  live  hundred  miles  over  a  somewhat  mountain- 
ous country,  wdth  hot  water  instead  of  fire  to  keep  our 
feet  warm,  and  chance  diet  on  the  way,  completely  up- 
set my  machinery,  and  I  would  not  have  smiled  at  the 
joke  that  "  Nestor  "  said  was  laughable. 

The  American  Consul  told  me  it  had  not  rained  for 
about  one  year  in  Marseilles,  and  I  was  forced  to  carry 
the  dust  of  some  of  the  ancient  ruins  of  that  city  in  my 
mouth,  throat,  and  eyes.  In  three  or  four  days,  we  left 
on  one  of  the  Imperial  Messagerie's  steamers,  loaded 
on  deck  with  emigrants  for  Genoa,  and  leaking  barrels 
of  kerosene  for  every  landing;  a  dirty  boat,  little  water, 
but  plenty  of  wine,  and  ready  for  a  typhoon,  a  blow^  up, 
or  a  match  to  the  kerosene.  We  steamed  on  at  nights, 
and  lay  by  in  some  city  bv  dav,  viz  :  Genoa,  Leghorn, 

16 


242  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

from  whence  we  visited  Pisa  and  its  leaning  tower,  and 
back  to  Leghorn,  by  railroad  ;  a  city,  that  to  me,  had  the 
shade  of  piraticism  about  it. 

In  Genoa,  we  saw  the  chart  of  Christopher  Colum- 
bus, and  visited  the  palaces  of  some  poor  Princes;  then 
Civita  Yeche.  We  could  see  the  Dome  of  St.  Peter's, 
at  Eome,  from  on  board  our  steamer ;  arrived  at  Naples 
in  early  morn,  and  had  good  view  of  Mt.  Vesuvius,  and 
the  Lava  running  from  its  crater.  We  tarried  in 
:s'aples  some  two  weeks,  went  to  Pompeii,  Yeso- 
vius'  crater,  over  Herculaneum,  to  the  museums^ 
VirgiFs  Tomb,  through  the  tunnel  into  the  country,  and 
another  hot  crater  and  sulphur  in  abundance  ;  and  then 
to  Rome,  as  my  son  was  pressed  to  visit  that  city  by 
Miss  E.  M.,  a  Virginia  lady,  and  a  friend  of  the  Pope  ; 
through  whom  we,  with  Gen.  Breckenridge,  were  in- 
vited to  call  on  the  Pope  afterwards.  Miss  E.  M.  would 
take  me  in  her  carriage  to  St.  Peter's,  on  some  Holy 
day,  to  see  the  Pope  and  Cardinal  Antonelli.  I  had 
seen  so  much  dilapidation  at  home,  by  the  late  war,  that 
Rome  and  its  surroundings,  reminded  me  of  the  coun- 
try, called  home. 

The  high-priced,  bad  fare,  dirty  hotels,  were  no  at- 
tractions for  me.  My  machine  was  growing  more  and 
more  out  of  order,  and  I  could  sigh  for  La  Belle  Paris 
in  this  ancient  city.  There  was  not  a  newspaper  jlub- 
lished ;  and  to  walk  out  alone  at  nights,  was  considered 
extremely  unsafe.  The  muddy  Tiber,  with  its  sluggish 
waters,  passed  under  a  ^bridge,  that  bore  the  marks  of 
cannon  shots  of  the  late  war.  The  cholera,  too,  had 
paid  a  visit  to  this  dirty  city,  and  as  the  mouth  will  not 
sing,  unless  the  heart  sings,  my  place  for  eight-seeing 


''  CALAIS-MORALE."  243 

was  eitlier  replete  from  my  long  stay  in  Paris,  or  the 
tilings  and  people  were  so  difterent,  or  I  was  tired,  or 
my  machine  out  of  order. 

I  am  sure,  no  visitor,  who  ever  wished  to  see  Rome, 
enjoyed  less  pleasure  in  the  two  weeks  spent  there.  At 
Naples  not  much  hetter,  so  I  was  glad  to  leave  by  same 
steamer  for  Marseilles,  to  remain  a  day  or  two,  and 
then  for  I'aris. 

We  had  a  "  Norther"  going  up,  and  had  to  put  into 
the  island  or  port  of  Elba,  and  enjoy  the  scare  of  some 
of  the  officers  on  the  steamer,  and  thence  to  Paris, 
where  I  found  all  right  again  ;  found  Dr.  Coneau's 
letter  at  Hotel  de  Lille  et  Albion,  waiting  my  return. 

We  remained  a  few  days  and  returned  to  London  ; 
remained  there^a  few  days,  and  then  to  Liverpool,  and 
then  to  Matlock,  the  watering  place  of  Derbyshire, 
where  we  remained  some  six  weeks  on  account  of  a  car- 
buncle I  had,  which  I  have  little  doubt  was  brought  on 
by  too  sudden  change  of  diet,  climate,  habits  and  asso- 
ciations. 

I  received  the  following  letter  from  W.  C.  Bee  d'  Co  , 
my  agents  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  forwarded  to 
me  from  Liverpool  to  Paris,  and  which  was  of  vast  im- 
port to  me,  but  which  advice  I  would  not  profit  by,  as  I 
can't  care  for  money  when  my  liberality  is  excited  by 
either  the  honest  intentions  or  acts  of  those  who  may  have 
erred  as  my  agents;  and  thus  the  common  trading 
world  has  said,  rather  some  of  the  best  men  I  ever  knew 
in  it,  that  I"  had  made  more  money  for  other  people,  and 
had  furnished  the  capital  of  both  brains  and  money,  than 
any  man  living. 


244  *'  CALAIS-MORALE." 

Charleston,  October  5th,  1867. 
W.  n.  Wesson,  Liverpool : 

Dear  Sir — We  were  favored  yesterday  with  yours  of 
of  19th  ultimo,  and  are  glad  to  learn  that  you  have  in 
immediate  prospect  a  settlement  with  Messrs.  C.  M.  F. 
&  Co.,  of  your  claims  against  them,  in  a  form  agreeable 
to  all  parties. 

If  you  have  not  already  done  so,  you  had  better  de- 
cline assuming  the  settlement  of  the  planting  operations 
in  which  you  were  jointly  interested.  It  would  not  be 
prudent  for  you  to  do  so  upon  any  margin  which  they 
would  be  likely  to  deem  equitable,  and,  therefore,  it 
would  be  better  to  await  the  final  development. 

As  Messrs.  Mitchell  &  Jervey  have  remitted  exchange 
to  Messrs.  C.  M.  F.  &  Co.,  to  cover  balance  against 
them,  we  have  given  up  the  collaterals  deposited  with 
us  to  secure  the  payment  of  the  same. 

Yesterday  we  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  J.  H.  Cath- 
cart,  in  which  he  states  that  he  had  written  to  you,  evi- 
dently unaware  that  you  had  crossed  the  Atlantic,  but 
had  received  no  reply  to  a  very  important  inquiry 
which  he  had  made  in  relation  to  the  mortgage  you  hold 
of  Mr.  Mobly's  plantations  ;.  upon  which,  it  seems,  there 
is  a  prior  mortgage  for  twelve  hundred  and  fifty  dollars, 
in  virtue  of  which,  the  property  will  be  ofi'ered  for  sale 
at  Winnsboro  C.  H.  on  next  Monday.  Mr.  Cathcart 
asked  for  instructions  or  advice.  We  replied  that  we 
had  none  from  you  on  the  subject,  as  you  were,  no 
doubt,  unaware  of  the  existence  of  the  prior  mortgage. 
But  in  accordance  with  the  general  care  of  your  inter- 
ests, with  which  we  felt  ourselves  charged,  we  would  say, 
that  if  he  felt  assured,  that  the  property  would  command 


245 

the  amount  of  the  first  lien,  and  the  whole  or  a  portion 
of  yours,  then  it  was  clearly  for  your  interest  to  bid  it 
up  to  the  point,  which,  to  that  extent,  would  protect 
you.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  there  was  no  such  assur- 
ance, then  it  would  be  very  unwise  to  throw  good  money- 
after  bad.  We  trust  that  this  view  of  the  matter  will 
meet  your  approval. 

"With  regard  to  your  other  debtors,  the  failure  of  the 
present  crop  will  certainly  not  promote  their  efforts  to 
liquidate  your  claims. 

Mr.  Seabrook  has  experienced  his  share  of  misfor- 
tunes in  the  crop  line,  and  will  fall  considerably  short, 
we  think,  of  actual  expenses. 

All  efforts  to  assist  our  unfortunate  planters  on  the 
coast  seem  to  have  had  the  efiect  of  involving  them 
more  deeply.  In  a  private  letter  from  the  writer  you 
have  our  news  as  to  the  crop  in  this  State.  The  total 
upland  crop  we  cannot  venture  to  estimate.  The  pre- 
vailing opinion  places  it  at  two  milHons.  The  result  of 
the  Sea  Island  crop  will  depend  upon  the  product  of  the 
boles  still  left  upon  the  stalk.  It  is  not  supposed  now 
that  over  seventeen  thousand  bales  can  be  gathered  in 

all  the  States. 

Yours,  truly, 

.  W.  C.  BEE  &  CO. 


246 


"  CALAIg-MORALE.' 


PASSPORT 


Wt^^tion  of  tl^t  itttittb  BtntcB  of  Mtnttic^, 


AND     FRANCE. 


FOR   THE    AID    AND   PROTECTION    OF 


CITIZEN  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES  OF   AMERICA. 


Age,  54  ;    Eyes,  Grej^ ;    Hair,  Black. 


[Stgnatu7'e.] 


'^. 


ii€ia?n 


:  Te. 


e^do^. 


Done  at  Paris,  this  15th  day  of  Feb.  1868. 
American  Legation. 


JOHN  A.   DIX, 

Consul. 


French  Seal. 


/.  'NAPORNITI. 

Of  Legation. 


SEAL^    Papal  Seal.  (  SKAl.]    Austrian  Seal. 


CALAIS-MORALE. 


247 


ARROWS    OF   AXOIENT    WISDOM. 


Who  Lath  no  more  bread  than  need,  must  not  keep  a 
dog. 

The  mill  g-ets  by  going. 

To  a  boiling  pot  flies  come  not. 

A  garden  must  be  looked  unto  and  dressed  as  the 
l)od3\ 

The  fox  when  he  cannot  reach  the  grapes,  says  they 
4ire  not  ripe. 

Water  trotted  is  as  good  as  oats. 

Though  a  lie  be  well  dressed,  it  is  ever  overcome. 

Though  old  and  wise,  yet  still  advise. 

Three  helping  one  another  bear  the  burden  of  six. 

Slander  is  a  shipwreck  by  a  dry  tempest. 

Old  wine  and  an  old  friend  are  good  provisions. 

Happy  is  he  that  chastens  himself. 

Well  may  he  smell  fire  whose  gown  burns. 

The   wrongs   of  a   husband   or   master   are    not   re- 
proached. 

Welcome  evil  if  thou  comest  alone. 

Love  your  neighbor,  yet  pull  not  down  your  hedge. 

The  bit  that  one  eats,  no  friend  makes. 

A  drunkard's  purse  is  a  bottle. 

She  spins  well  that  breeds  her  children. 

Good  is  the  mora  that  makes  all  sure. 

Play  with  a  fool  at  home  and  he  will  play  with  you  in 
the  market 

Every  one  stretcheth  his  legs  according  to  his  cover- 
let. 


248 

Marry  your  son  when  you  will ;  your  daughter  when 
you  can. 

Dally  not  with  money  or  women. 

Men  speak  of  the  fair  as  things  went  with  them  there^ 

The  mill  cannot  grind  with  waters  that  are  past. 

Autumnal  agues  are  long  or  mortal. 

Corn  is  cleaned  with  wind  and  the  soul  with  chas- 
tenings. 

Goods  words  are  worth  much  and  cost  little. 
Jest  not  with  the  eye  or  religion  ;    the  eye  and  re- 
ligion can  bear  no  jesting. 

Without  favor  none  will  know  you,  and  with  it  you 
wall  not  know  yourself. 

Buy  at  a  fair  and  sell  at  home. 

Cover  yourself  with  a  shield  and  care  not  for  cries. 

A  wicked  man's  gift  hath  a  touch  of  his  master. 

None  is  a  fool  always,  every  one  sometimes. 

From  a  choleric  man  withdraw  a  little;  from  him* 
that  says  nothing  forever. 

Debtors  are  liars. 

Of  all  smells,  bread  alone  is  the  best. 

In  a  great  river  great  fish  are  found. 
But  take  heed  lest  you  are  drowned. 

Ever  since  we  w'ear  clothes  we  know  not  one  another. 

God  strikes  not  with  both  hands ;  for  the  sea  he  made- 
havens,  and  to  rivers  he  made  fords. 

No  lock  will  hold  against  the  power  of  gold. 

The  absent  party  is  still  faulty. 

Peace  and  patience,  and  death  with  repentance. 

If  you  lose  your  time  you  cannot  get  money  again.. 

Be  not  a  baker  if  your  head  be  of  butter. 

Ask  much  to  have  a  little. 

Little  sticks  kindle  the  fire  ;  great  ones  put  it  out. 

A  little  with  quiet  is  the  only  diet. 


CALAIS-MORALE."  249 


Home   Again 


'E  sailed  from  Liverpool  about  the  first  of  July,. 
1868,  on  the  steamer  City  of  London,  and  had  a 
pleasant  voyage  to  New  York.  Arrived  on  Sunday 
morning,  and  was  charged  five  dollars  hack  hire  for  two 
persons  and  our  baggage,  to  the  United  States  HoteL 
What  a  comment  on  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  Great 
Republic  ! 

In  November,  1868, 1  went  to  Charleston,  South  Caro^ 
lina,  to  see  the  ruins  left  from  the  caterpiller  pest.  The- 
parties  to  whom  I  had  loaned  money  to  farm  were  all 
ruined,  as  well  as  every  Sea  Island  cotton  planter  I 
could  hear  from,  all  much  worse  off  than  when  the  war 
closed.  Their  lands,  then  supposed  to  be  valuable, 
were  now  worthless,  and  there  was  no  sale  for  them 
whatever  ;  indeed,  nearly  every  Island  and  coast  planta- 
tion, for  one  hundred  miles,  were  for  sale  and  not  a 
buyer  to  be  heard  of.  I  was  forced  to  take  several 
plantations,  as  the  owners  could  not  pay  the  taxes,  (I 
hold  them  yet)  and  the  number  of  plantations  that  have 
reverted  to  the  State  for  taxes,  if  told,  would  appear 
fabulous,  as  well  as  the  large  sums  of  money  lost  by 
Northern  and  Southern  men  by  the  caterpillers,  for  two 
years,  destroying  the  crops. 

I  had  to  receive  twenty-two  of  twenty-seven  mules 
left,  which  I  had  conditionally  sold  to  a  party.  A 
former  agent  of  mine  and  a  trump,  II.  L.  F.,  after  he- 


"250  "  CALAIS-MORALE.' 

had  brought  my  mules  to  Charleston,  to  be  sold,  insisted 
that  I  should  rent  Hutchinson's  Island,  where  he  had 
been  superintendent  for  the  past  two  years,  and  so  much 
money  lost ;  that  the  one  hundred  negroes,  all  Roman 
Catholics,  were  anxious  to  be  hired  and  work  the  Island  ; 
that  the  caterpillers  would  not  come  the  third  year. 
The  Island  belonged  to  Countess  Tardini,  a  South 
'Carolina  lady,  who  married  an  Italian  Count,  and  who 
resided  in  Italy ;  and  that  the  negroes  were  docile,  and 
would  hire  cheap — all  out  of  employment,  and  the  farms 
nearly  all  deserted  everywhere. 

I  told  him  as  my  luck  had  skipped  the  two  cater- 
piller  years,  but  I  had  helped  some  of  the  planters  vs, 
my  judgment,  with  a  positive  agreement  with  them, 
that  after  1866,  I  was  to  have  no  more  to  do  in  this 
business;  yet  my  sympathy  with  them  had  made  a 
breach  on  my  promise,  and  I  should  lose  considerable 
by  those  I  had  so  reluctantly  continued  to  help  after  my 
resolve  to  go  to  Europe. 

Yet,  I  wished  to  see  everybody  who  wished  to  work,, 
employed,  and  at  least  one  plantation  in  operation,  to 
keep  up  appearances,  for  the  year  1869. 

We  took  the  mules  back  to  the  Island,  worked  the 
farm,  and  made  money.  We  had  two  other  white  mana- 
ger, and  the  two  former  old  negro  managers  to  assist 
as  overseers.  Frank,  the  preacher,  and  overseers,  re- 
ceived the  same  wages  as  the  other  laborers,  but  did  no 
labor  in  the  field.  I  would  never  allow  any  whiskey  to 
be  sold  in  any  of  the  commissaries  kept  there,  or  on  any 
farm  I  had  anything  to  do  with,  and  never  had  any 
trouble  to  get  labor,  or  with  the  laborers. 

I  had  to  charter  steamboats  to  carry  everything  to 


"CALAIS-MORALE."  251 

this  Island,  some  sixty  miles  from  Charleston,  and  if  I 
had  space  to  describe  the  working  of  this  Island^  and 
the  trips  I  made  there  in  1869,  in  three  different  routes, 
and  all  difhcnlties  to  get  to  it,  it  would  make  a  long 
story  of  some  interest  to  people  who  are  not  acquainted 
with  that  country,  and  its  present  population. 

Capt.  F.,  my  manager,  said :  one  thousand  negroes 
couhi  hear  a  horn  blown  at  his  quarters,  and  only  two 
white  men.  He  was  a  gentleman  that  feared  only  to 
do  a  mean  thing ;  but  the  war  had  impoverished  the  es- 
tate he  was  an  heir  of.  He  fought  through  the  war  as 
a  scout,  and  did  not  lose  a  day,  and  was  as  true  as  steel 
in  whatever  he  undertook  to  do.  I  made  a  visit  to  this 
Island,  in  November,  1869,  via  railroad  to  Grahamville, 
on  foot  to  Boyd's  landing,  then  across  Broad  river,  at 
considerable  risk  in  a  little  sail-boat,  landed  alone  on 
foot,  and  on  St.  Helena  Island,  where  thousands  of  half 
wild  negroes  dwelt  on  lands,  said  to  be  given  to  them 
by  the  Federal  Government ;  then  ten  miles  on  foot, 
and  in  a  pony  cart  with  Capt.  Simmons,  one  of  the 
chiefs,  and  in  the  night  to  Beaufort,  S.  C. ;  the  next  day 
in  a  small  open  boat,  aided  by  two  strange  negroes,  up 
the  Beaufort  river;  down  the  Cumbee  river,  through  the 
Horn  in  the  night;  then  on  some  of  St.  Helena  Sound, 
up  the  Back  river  to  the  Island,  and  to  the  house  of  my 
agent  by  ten  p.  m.,  in  the  midst  of  a  grand  illumination 
of  the  burning  bark  of  the  Palmetto  trees,  which  stood 
as  ornamental  trees  over  tbis  one  thousand  two  hun- 
dred acre  island. 

The  negroes  did  it  in  honor  of  my  arrival. 
At  Grahamville,  I  staid  all  night  with  Mr.  F.,  once  a 
very  rich  sea  island  cotton  planter,  with   a  wife   and 


252  "  CALAIS-MORALE/' 

several  children,  to  whom  I  had  loaned  money.  He 
was  marooning  in  a  deserted  cabin,  as  poor  as  war  and 
caterpillers  could  make  him.  I  bought  some  venison 
next  morning,  which,  they  said,  was  the  first  meat,  of 
any  kind,  they  had  eaten  for  a  time.  1  had  sent  hira, 
as  a  present,  a  few  barrels  of  the  large  crop  of  sweet 
potatoes,  I  had  planted  on  the  island.  I  paid  railroad 
freight,  yet,  he  was  not  able  to  pay  the  cartage  from  the 
depot. 

I  left  his  place,  rather  the  dilapidated  large  village  of 
summer  residences,  for  once  wealthy  planters.  I  passed 
Scriven's  place,  called  '•  Kapoleon,"  five  hundred  and 
thirty  acres,  now  said  to  belong  to  me,  on  which  the 
battle  of  Honey  Hill  was  fought  in  the  late  war,  and 
which  the  ball-scarred  trees,  now  plainly  indicated.  Not 
far  from  this,  on  Broad  river,  the  one  thousand  acre, 
now  deserted  farm  of  Mr.  F.,  whose  house  I  had  just 
left,  which  farm  was  said  to  belong  to  me.  I  own  them, 
and  several  others,  and  have  paid  the  taxes,  and  never 
received  income  from  any  or  all  of  them  to  pay  the 
yearly  tax.  There  is  no  sale  for  these  rich  lands.  Air. 
B.,  whose  boat  carried  me  the  three  miles  over  the 
river,  was  regretting,  he  was  not  able  to  desert  his  farm. 

The  negroes  on  St.  Helena  Island  were  in  a  state  of 
semi-starvation,  as  Captain  Simmons  informed  me,  and 
my  failure  to  get  anything  to  eat  at  the  many  houses 
I  visited,  unless  it  was  fresh  fish  boiled,  without  salt  or 
bread  to  eat  with  them,  confirmed  his  statement.  The 
Government  and  Federal  troops,  stationed  near  Beau- 
fort, had  assisted  these  negroes  much  to  live,  for  the 
past  three  years.  The  troops  and  Government  had  left 
them  to  sliift  for  themselves   on    these  rich   lands.     I 


253 

asked  Captain  Simmons  why  they  did  not  all  liave 
enough  to  eat  on  such  good  lands,  and  that  given  to 
them.  He  replied,  the  negroes  would  not  work.  I 
asked  him  if  there  was  no  white  man  amongst  them. 
He  said  now  there  was  none,  as  the  only  one  had  just 
left.  He  said  :  "  He  was  a  Yankee  man,  and  had  put 
up  a  store  and  trusted  the  negroes  for  supplies,  and 
agreed  to  take  their  cotton,  when  matured,  in  pay- 
ment. He  had  waited  patiently  for  the  negroes  to 
-come  in  with  their  cotton  till  the  first  of  IS'ovember, 
but,  as  none  of  them  came,  the  white  man  (they  call 
him  'Buckra')  went  around  to  find  his  delinquent 
customers,  but  did  not  find  many  of  them,  and  not  a 
pound  of  cotton.  I  was  at  his  store  when  he  came 
back,  and,  I  tell  you,  '  Buckra '  was  so  mad  he  fairly 
sweated,  and  took  what  goods  he  had  in  store  and  left. 
See,  'Buckra,'  he  did  not  know  these  negroes  like  me, 
or  he  would  not  have  trusted  them  at  first." 

We  arrived  at  Beaufort  about  nine  p.  m.  ;  saw  the 
coals  of  a  large  fire,  and  many  negroes  shouting 
around  them.  It  was  the  court-house,  just  burned.  I 
heard  it  said  that  some  office  connected  with  the  late 
troops  was  in  this  building,  and  that  the  officer  in 
charge  had  burnt  the  building,  as  a  short  way  of  settling 
his  accounts.  I  do  not  know  the  truth  of  this  thing. 
I  was  an  entire  stranger;  asked  no  questions;  was  very 
hungry ;  could  get  nothing  to  eat  at  the  hotel ;  ad- 
journed to  a  restaurant  kept  by  a  yellow  man,  who  said 
he  came  from  Washington  City,  and  that  his  customers 
had  nearly  eaten  everything  he  could  get,  except  a  few 
raw  oysters  and  some  crackers,  with  neither  vinegar  or 
pepper,  so  I  and  Captain  Simmons  eat  what  we  could 
get.     I  paid  him  more  than  his  price  for  his  services. 


254  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

and  he  went  to  seek  lod^ngs,  thanking  me  as  far  as  I 
coald  hear  him. 

1  hunted  next  morning,  from  dajhght  to  eleven,  a.  m.,, 
to  sret  two  of  the  manv  nes^roes  in  that  town  to  carry  me 
twenty  miles  to  onr  island;  all  I  was  recommended  to 
call  on  had  to  attend  some  election  next  day.  In  my 
hunt  with  an  escort  we  passed  a  house  seemingly  full  of 
negroes,  singing  like  the  factory  negroes  do  sometimes 
in  Richmond;  I  asked  my  cicerone  what  kind  of  factory 
that  was  ;  he  answered :  *'  Why,  Buckra,  that  is  the  jail^ 
and  full  of  negroes,  who  love  to  go  there  as  they  feed 
them,  and  they  do  not  have  to  work."  I  had  given  up 
my  hope  of  getting  away  from  this  forlorn  place,  to  me, 
and  the  tide  had  turned  too  vs.  my  voyage.  When  walk- 
ing alone,  not  far  from  the  water,  I  saw  a  negro  dash- 
ing water  from  a  small  hoat.  I  went  to  him  and  asked 
the  chances;  he  said,  he  was  going  to  Deer  Island,  pass- 
ing in  a  few  miles  of  my  Island,  but  the  man  who  was 
to  go  with  him  had  disappointed  him,  and  now  the  tide 
was  wrong.  A  negro  passing  about  this  time,  I  hailed 
him,  and  I  do  not  know  now  how  I  unexpectedly  got 
him  to  go  with  us. 

I  steered  the  little  boat  they  rowed  ;  we  sailed  some, 
but  it  was  an  up-current  business.  The  two  strange 
negroes  seemed  to  admit  my  superiority  when  we  left 
the  shore,  and,  although  we  passed  the  Horn  after  night, 
and  the  grass  on  either  side  as  high  as  a  man,  as  desti- 
tute as  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  the  strange  negroes  had 
the  animal  power  to  have  placed  me  where  I  should 
never  have  been  heard  of  again,  yet  I  could  not  fear 
them  any  more  than  the  negroes  on  the  large  island  I 
had  passed  through  the  night  before  alone,  yet  my 
money  and  my  watch  were  frequently  shown  to  them. 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  255 

The  whole  trip  and  its  incidents  with  the  workings  of 
the  large  farm  on  Hutchinson's  Island,  in  1879,  would 
make  a  book  and  romance  for  those  who  have  never 
seen  these  places. 

My  readers,  ]  hope,  will  permit  me  here  to  leave  the 
tracks  and  signs  of  war,  and  place  our  thoughts  on 
lighter  things,  which,  if  less  interesting,  may  leave  bet- 
ter impressions  on  our  mind,  sounder  sleep  and  better 
dreams ;  so,  I  will  hie  back  to  Europe  and  give  some 
facts  and  incidents  growing  out  of  mv  trip,  and  some 
promiscuous  letters,  which  may  make  more  clear  some 
of  the  facts  I  have  attempted  to  prove  by  the  testimony 
of  Bible  verses  quoted  in  the  prospectus  of  this  book. 


GRAPE    AXD    CAXISTER. 


By  the  needle  you  shall  draw  the  thread,  and  by  that 
which  is  past  see  how  that  which  is  to  come  will  be 
drawn. 

Stay  a  little  and  the  news  will  find  you. 

Stay  till  the  lame  messenger  come,  if  you  will  know 
the  truth  of  the  thing. 

When  God  will,  no  wind  but  brings  rain. 
The  resolved  mind  has  no  cares. 
_  The  ground-sill  speaks  not,  save  what  it  heard  at  the 
hinsces. 

The  best  mirror  is  an  able  friend. 

Say  no  ill  of  the  year  till  it  be  past. 

Fear  nothing  but  sin. 

The  child  says  nothing  but  what  it  heard  at  the  fire. 

Call  me  not  an  olive  until  I  am  gathered. 


256 

That  is  not  good  language  which   all  understand  not. 

He  will  spend  a  whole  year's  rent  at  one  meal's  meat. 

All  is  not  gold  that  glitters. 

A  blustering  night,  a  fair  day. 

Be  not  idle,  and  you  shall  not  be  longing. 

He  is  not  poor  that  hath  little,  but  he  that  desireth 
much. 

He  wrongs  not  an  old  man  that  steals  his  supper  from 
him. 

The  tongue  talks  at  the  head's  cost. 

He  that  strikes  with  his  tongue,  must  ward  with  his 
head. 

Keep  not  ill  men's  company,  lest  you  increase  the 
number. 

Another's  bread  costs  dear. 

Although  it  rain  throw  not  aw^ay  thy  watering  pot. 

Although  the  sun  shine,  leave  not  thy  cloak  at  home. 


"  CALAIS-MORALE.''  25T 


To  THE   Reader. 


"^jfwnREE  hundred  of  the  four  hundred  pages  of  my 
^^^  manuscript  were  supposed  to  be  sufficient  to  finish 
a  book  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  pages,  promised  to  my 
•subscribers.  In  doing  this,  some  articles  were  cur- 
tailed, others  excluded. 

I  have  added  these  **  After-pieces "  to  give  more 
volume  to  the  book,  more  clearness  to  some  of  the 
stories,  and,  I  hope,  amuse  some  of  my  readers  with 
my  notes  and  clippings.  At  any  rate,  I  wish  to  prove, 
at  least,  the  first  verse  of  the  Bible,  quoted  in  my  pros- 
pectus— that  I  have  stood  before  kings,  not  mean  men ; 
y^a,  queens  and  many  ladies  ;  and  w^ill  stand,  with  the 
ladies,  the  sneers  of  the  envious  and  the  criticisms  of 
those  wounded  by  the  truths  which  this  book  contains. 


Paris,  Oct.  14th,  1867.  ( 
9  A.  M.      5 

Madame  Gribon: 

I  have  gotten  into  more  than  one  feline  difficulty, 
since  I  left  your  kind  "  Alaison."  You,  and  your  three 
beautiful  white  "  chats  "  would  be  amazed  at  the  big  black 
grimalkin,  in  the  office  of  the  concierge,  at  the  hotel 
Oxford  et  Cambridge,  *'  Rue  de  Algier  et  St.  Honore." 
I  had  to  tame  this  *'chat,"  as  thev  do  *'femmes"  in  Ameri- 

17 


258  ''  CALAIS-MORALE." 

que.  The  "chat"  yielded,  on  being  held  up  by  her  ears  ; 
but,  Pauline,  Madame's  petite  fille,  cried,  to  break  her 
heart,  at  the  idea  of  losing  her  "  chat's  "  affections.  I^ 
being  a  stranger,  did  not  know  these  French  folks  were 
so  touchy  on  the  subject  of  "chats;"  and  all  I  ean 
now  do,  is  to  make  amend  for  this  cat-astrophe.  I  have 
procured-her  a  white  rat,  and  with  the  white  "chat"  which 
you  gave  me,  when  I  was  in  Dieppe,  I  can  keep  my 
word  to  this  little  lady,  so  I  will  ask  you  to  put  the  "chat" 
in  a  basket,  and  direct  it  to  me,  at  my  hotel.  The  ad- 
dress is  :  room  25,  Hotel  Oxford  et  Cambridge,  "Kue  de 
Algier  et  St.  Honore." 


Where  so  many  of  these  strange  things  occurred^ 
many  of  ^sops  fables  were  significantly  acted.  My 
books  on  my  table  were,  the  Bible,  ^Esop's  Fables,  and 
the  Language  of  Flowers,  and  let  me  change  my  dress 
as  often  as  I  would,  these  persons,  next  morning,  would 
have  the  perfect  dress  in  which  I  stood  the  day  before. 
My  hours  for  eating  were  punctual — eight  and-a-half  a. 
M.  and  three  and-a-half  p.  m.  For  three  months  I  al- 
ways ate  alone,  and  imagined  that  I  conversed  daily 
with  thousands  in  a  language  more  ancient  than  the  He- 
brew. 

I,  however,  admit  a  little  rudeness,  just  a  little,  to 
the  ladies,  which  is  my  only  regret  in  Paris.  My  never 
missed  morning's  walk  was  in  one  of  the  meandering 
paths  near  the  entrance  arch  to  the  Tuilleries,  and  where 
I  last  saw  the  blue  dogs.  Three  young  ladies,  bare- 
headed and  bare-armed,  entwined  together  in  postures 
of  the  Three  Graces,  were  in  my  walk  and  no  way  to 
miss  them,  unless  I  purposely  walked  across  the  grass 
to  another  path. 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  259 

Thiit  (laj  I  went  up  the  first  stairs,  a  pleasant  old 
lady  met  me  and  spoke  to  me  in  English,  then  the  lonelj^ 
young  lady  who  sat  at  my  early  breakfast-hour  for  a 
week  at  the  table  close  to  me,  and  drank  chocolate;  yet 
to  her  I  did  not  speak,  but  on  the  steps  where  I  met  the 
elderly  woman  that  spoke  to  me,  for  several  days  I  heard 
the  sweetest  music  that  my  imagination  had  ever  con- 
ceived, something  of  my  idea  of  a  lute,  but  in  the  seven- 
storied  mansion  I  could  not  place  whence  it  came ;  and, 
as  I  never  appeared  surprised  at  anything,!  rarely  made 
inquiries. 


Major  Edward  Mortimer,  of  Cheltenham,  England, 
spent  six  out  of  the  seven  evenings  he  spent  in  Paris  in 
my  room  and  invited  me  to  go  to  Cheltenham,  saying 
that  he  would  help  me  to  get  aid  for  the  Widows'  and 
Orphans'  Asylum  in  Charleston,  and  would  have  me  in- 
troduced to  Queen  Victoria. 

I  saw  the  Empress  Eugene  with  her  husband  the  first 
time  in  the  Galleries  of  Paintings  at  Versailles,  and  then 
again  when  she  took  her  carriage  for  St.  Cloud.  The 
Empress  would  have  been  the  most  proper  person  for 
this  appeal,  as  all  men  who  are  burdened  with  a  multi- 
plicity of  afiairs  are  difficult  of  access,  and  in  Paris, 
the  center  of  the  business  of  one  of  the  most  consider- 
able nations  of  Europe,  the  men  of  consequence  are 
particularly  obdurate  ;  therefore,  those  who  have  any- 
thing to  ask  naturally  apply  to  the  ladies,  whose  ears 
are  never  shut  against  the  unhappy ;  they  console  and 
serve  them. 

In  regard  to  the  emptiness,  of  what  the  world  calls 
pleasure,  perhaps  Lord   Chesterfield's  remark  when  he 


260  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

got  old,  is  as  strong  proof  as  any  to  be  found  in 
modern  times.  He  said,  I  look  upon  the  past  as  one  of 
those  romantic  dreams  which  opium  commonly  occa- 
sions, and  I  by  no  means  desire  to  repeat  the  nauseous 
dose  for  the  sake  of  the  fusritive  dream. 


Shall  I  tell  you  that  1  bear  this  melancholy  situation 
with  that  meritorious  constancy  and  resignation,  I 
really  cannot  help  it.  I  bear  it  because  I  must,  whether 
I  luill  or  no,  and  I  think  of  nothing  but  killing  time  ; 
now  he  is  become  mine  enemy.  It  is  my  resolution  to 
sleep  in  the  carriage  during  the  remainder  of  the  jour- 
ney. Thus  you  see  Chesterfield  considered  time  his 
enemy,  as  much    as  Cowley  : 

"I  have  had  my  will. 
Tasted  every  pleasure, 
I  have  drank  my  fill. 

Of  the  purple  measure 
It  has  lost  its  zest; 
Sorrow  is  my  guest. 
Oh,  the  lees  are  bitter,  bitter, 
Give  me  rest !" 


In  May,  1865, 1  walked  forty  miles  through  General 
Sherman's  raid  ground,  to  Newberry,  South  Carolina, 
where  I  had  some  property  to  care  for.  Bought  a  lot  of 
cotton  and  sent  it  to  Augusta,  Georgia,  intending  to  pay 
the  net  profits  to  my  regiment.  I  netted  three  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  as  profit,  in  gold,  and  got  the  Victoria 
coin,  and  gave  one  to  each  soldier  of  my  regiment,  as 
far  as  I  could  find  them,  leaving  three  or  four  unpaid, 
whom  I  have  never  seen. 


261 

When  I  went  to  pay  Miss  Tinckney  and  Miss  Eut- 
ledge  they  had  gotten  possession  of  their  homes  on  the 
battery  not  very  long,  and  AlissPinckney  said  to  me  **  I 
have  not  had  enough  money  for  these  two  weeks  to 
buy  a  broom."  Up  to  the  war  she  was  the  richest  lady 
in  South  Carolina.  The  Victoria  piece,  or  five  dollar 
gold  piece,  was  then  worth  seven  dollars  and  fifty  cente 
in  greenbacks. 


Louis  had  put  forty  instead  of  twenty  drops  of  burnt 
**Eau  de  Tie"  in  my  desert  cup  of  coffee.  Though 
seated  at  the  front  of  the  pulpit,,  the  angel-looking  boy 
(the  greatest  curiosity  I  saw  in  Paris)  setting  beside  me, 
and  Solomon,  my  favorite  writer  in  the  Bible  ;  the  text,, 
the  angel,  the  coffee,  or  the  brandy  got  me  fast  asleep 
before  the  sermon  was  half  over. 

Before  going  to  sleep,  I  learned  from  this  sermon 
what  I  had  never  heard  or  read  of  before — that  Solo- 
mon only  lived  out  half  of  his  days,  sixty  years,  as  the 
Bible  saya  shall  be  the  case  with  all  wicked  men.  The 
conclusion  of  the  service  awoke  me,  I  thought,  alone 
amongst  strangers  to  see  my  pecadillo,  but,  behold  !  as 
I  arose  from  my  seat,  there  were  Bishop  Atkinson  and 
his  wife,  of  Xorth  Carolina,  and  the  angel  boy  looking  at 
me,  whilst  shaking  hands  with  the  Bishop  and  wife. 
The  angel  boy  disappeared,  and  I  took  my  cab  for  the 
hotel. 


The  five  dogs  I  saw  act  in  a  theatre  in  Paris  exhibited 
more  intelligence  than  many  persons  I  have  had  to  do 
with.  I  believe  the  cat  and  dog,  by  instinct,  know  the 
man  that  is  *'  cruel  to  his  beast."     They  are  God's  crea- 


262  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

tures,  and  I  found  even  the  cat  more  faithful  than  the 
average  of  my  kind.  Even  Solomon  saith  :  "  A  faith- 
ful 7nan,  who  can  find,  or  a  good  woman  ?  " 


M}'  fire-servant  was  scared  ofi:*  to  Nice,  a  warm  cli- 
mate, when  he  discovered  that  I  preferred  waiting  on 
myself,  in  such  things  as  I  could  do,  and  that  what  he 
did  with  four  sticks  of  wood,  I  did  with  two.  The 
weather  was  extra  cold,  and  the  ice  a  foot  thick.  The 
rapid  Seine  was  frozen  over,  but  was  not  very  sleek ; 
the  ice  was  ragged  and  jagged,  until  you  got  down 
lower  to  its  eddy,  and  there  the  ice  was  smooth,  and 
skaters  steady;  so  in  life's  currents — don't  go  swimnnng 
up  stream,  where  the  waters  are  high  and  rough. 

My  bathing-closet  was  amply  large,  and  three  snow- 
white  linen  towels  invited  me  to  charge  the  cold  abun- 
dant waters,  lathered  with  Lubin's  and  Queen  Isabella 
Bee  Soaps.  My  tire-wood  was  kept  in  bureau  drawers, 
with  a  key  to  each  lock ;  for  this  was  the  only  thing  I 
had  to  care  for  in  my  stock.  I  left  money  on  my  table, 
my  trunk  unlocked,  and  my  room  key  with  ''Lela;"  al- 
ways adding  a  half  franc  to  the  key,  in  the  way  of 
economy,  and  the  day  I  left  this  hotel,  I  found  bread  in 
my  fire,  to  indicate  that  her  bread,  by  my  departure, 
would  burn  too.  Yes,  nine  dollars  for  the  ninety  days, 
I  made  her  payments,  and  with  French  economy,  that 
would  buy  many  comforts.  My  most  extravagant  act 
happened  one  day,  when  I  came  from  dinner. 

I  said,  "  the  spirits  have  my  lost  money,  and  they  will 
return  it  in  time  to  pay  you  two  dollars  for  your  Sunday 
expenditures. 

He  replied,  I  will  get  it  on  AJonday,  and  perhaps  save 
something  by  having  no  money  to  spend. 


563 

As  he  uttered  these  words,  Monsieur  Melot  came  up 
behind  my  chair,  and  phiced  my  one  hundred  franc  bill 
on  the  right  side  of  my  phite,  and  disappeared.  I 
scarcely  saw  him. 

Here,  Newhouse,  I  told  you  faith  could  do  anything. 
Here  is  my  money  !  Go  out  and  change  it,  so  that  I 
may  pay  you.  He  had  eaten  hke  a  cormorant.  He  went 
out  with  the  money,  brought  back  the  change,  and  ap- 
peared as  happy  as  a  poor  man  only  can  be.  I  have  no 
doubt,  I  must  have  dropped  the  money  when  I  sat  at 
breakfast,  when  I  thought  I  put  it  carefully  in  the  letter  ; 
and,  as  no  one  else  breakfasted  at  my  hour,  Louis  or  the 
landlord  knew  to  whom  it  belonged.  I  never  asked  a 
question  about  it,  and  took  it  all  as  a  matter  of  course. 


The  practice  of  economy  without  meanness,  and  lux- 
ury without  extravagance,  I  consider  the  epicurism  of 
reason.  I  had  lessons  in  France  and  England,  on  this 
subject. 

In  France,  with  the  rich,  economy  is  an  example;  with 
the  poor,  a  necessity;  with  hotel-keepers,  the  key-stone  to 
success. 

At  a  watering  place,  in  Derbyshire,  England,  I  lived 
for  two  months  in  1868,  at  the  low-priced  grand  stone 
hotel,  conducted  by  Mr.  Koland  and  wife,  (they  were 
childless.)  Their  management  of  this  ever  guest  chang- 
ing caravansera,  gave  lessons  to  their  company,  which 
the  opposite  teachings  of  most  hotels,  can  but  slowly 
eradicate  from  the  minds  of  those  persons,  whose  object 
it  is  to  learn. 


264 

I  met  cotton  lords  of  Manchester,  retired  iron  mana- 
gers of  Birmingham,  and  millionare  traders  and  shop- 
keepers of  London.  There  were  also  many  guests, 
travellers  from  foreign  countries,  climate  wounded  men 
from  India,  sight  seekers  from  America,  health  w^orn 
preachers  from  Nottingham,  and  the  nervous  victims  of 
some  recent  great  inventions  from  London.  The  most 
of  these  persons  were  very  communicative  to  me,  and 
not  at  all  reticent,  as  the  English  are  said  to  be.  They 
informed  me  justly  and  truly,  of  very  many  things,, 
which  I  could  have  learned  nowhere  else. 


I  interpreted  them  on  first  sight  as  sent  in  here  of 
the  two  portraits  I  enclosed  in  my  letters  to  Her  Majesty. 
Then  my  photograph,  with  two  ladies  in  a  court-room, 
was  in  a  window  up  Rue  St.  Honore,  where  rare  and  ex- 
pensive paintings  were  sold.  I  had  had  my  photograph 
taken,  and  they  have  the  original  from  the  Gallery. 
Then  two  soldiers,  with  pipes  like  mine — a  corn-cob. 
(I  never  saw  a  pipe  to  imitate  mine  in  Paris).  These 
soldiers  were  standing  on  the  edge  of  an  ocean  with  a 
musket  each  pointed  over  the  waters.  I  then  had  crepe 
put  on  my  hat,  and  saw  over  twenty  thousand  men  with 
fresh  crepe  on  their  hats,  as  I  went  to  the  reception  of 
the  Emperor  of  Austria.  This,  like  the  umbrellas, 
soon  disappeared,  and  twelve  months  afterwards  I  was 
on  Broadway,  New  York,  and  had  lost  the  leather  tas- 
sel or  holder  from  my  umbrella,  and  went  into  the  um- 
brella store  of  Messrs.  Wright  and  Bros,  to  have  another 
one  put  on  it.  When  I  came  for  it  they  asked  me  where 
I  bought  that  umbrella  ;  I  said,  Paris.  The  man  said, 
(for  I  knew  none  of  them),  that  his  reason  for  asking. 


**  CALAIS-MORALE.'*  265' 

was  that  ten  thousand,  just  like  mine,  and  which  there 
were  none  in  this  country  of  the  kind,  were  sent  to  New 
York  and  soUl  at  auction  from  Paris,  as  all  of  them  ap- 
peared slightly  used  or  damaged.  I  have  frequently 
tried  to  buy  silk  to  mend  mine,  but  never  could  find  any 
like  it  anywhere. 


I  had  received  a  letter  from  Charleston  about  the  de- 
struction of  the  Sea  Island  cotton. 

I  gave  the  letter  and  its  enclosure  to  Pauline,  open,  to 
send  off  at  her  leisure.  I  am  sure  that  the  Empress 
saw  it,  from  what  happened  soon  afterwards,  and  again, 
from  the  unique  acknowledgement  of  my  letter  to  her 
at  Chiselhurst,  England,  where,  in  due  time,  a  ntwspaper 
directed  in  a  lady's  hand,  came  to  my  address  from  Eng- 
land, with  a  full  column,  well  marked,  of  the  play  of 
the  two  white  cats,  which  was  then  being  performed  in 
Paris,  and  which  had  run  one  hundred  and  eight}'-five 
nio^hts. 

A  very  intelligent  lady  and  gentleman  read  the  let- 
ters that  I  sent  to  the  Empress,  and  saw  the  newspaper, 
and  thought  with  me  that  it  was  a  most  genteel  way  of 
acknowledging  that  she  plead  guilty  to  having  caused  to 
be  done  the  many  things  I  charged  in  my  letters. 


I  ate  in  the  second  story  of  the  hotel,  and  at  my  hours 
for  eating  the  usually  quiet  street  would  frequently  be- 
come so  crowded  with  carriages  and  horsemen,  at  its 
entrance  into  Rue  St.  Honore,  that  it  would  become 
blocked,  just  as  you  see  it  near  Courtlandt  street,  Broad- 
way, New  York. 


'266  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

On  Saturday,  I  told  Xewhouse,  my  valet,  we  would 
visit  the  "  Bois  de  Bologne,"  and  Garden  des  Plants, 
beyond  the  walls  of  the  city.  I  had  a  one  hundred 
franc  bill,  and  enough  silver  to  pay  our  expenses.  Lewis 
and  Newhouse  always  knew  the  day  before,  my  plans 
for  the  following  day.  I  had  received  the  letter  from 
the  Emperor,  the  day  before,  and  as  my  portmonie  was 
made  only  to  carry  silver  and  gold,  at  the  breakfast 
table,  I  put,  or  thought  that  I  put  the  one  hundred  francs 
in  this  letter. 

Took  also  the  cafe,  with  twenty  drops  of  ^^Eau  de  Vie  " 
in  it,  or  "  all  together  "  as  Louis  would  say,  when  I  or- 
dered two  eatables  on  same  plate.  At  any  rate,  I  felt 
■extremely  comfortable  and  unusually  liberal,  and  hav- 
ing some  money  for  that  day  still  unloaned,  I  intended 
to  throw  a  half  franc  at  the  nodding  porter,  who  usu- 
ally sat  near  the  entrance  of  the  hotel.  I  had,  by 
chance,  got  a  half  of  a  Z^apoleon  in  my  right  vest 
pocket,  where  I  carried  for  many  years  a  never-counted 
sum  of  money.  In  passing  the  porter,  I  put  my  hand 
in  my  pocket  for  a  half  franc,  and  threw  it  on  the 
side-walk  near  him.  The  ring  of  the  piece  struck  my 
^ar  as  gold,  which  reminded  me  of  the  twenty-five 
franc  piece,  so  I  took  all  the  money  from  my  vest 
pocket ;  it  was  all  silver.  I  told  Louis  at  breakfast  the 
next  morning  of  this  chance  gift,  and  that  it  was  not 
my  intention.  Anyhow,  the  porter,  whom  I  had  no 
idea  of  calling  upon,  had  disappeared,  and  I  never  saw 
him  again,  which  reminded  me  of  the  story  of  a  gen- 
tleman giving  a  guinea  to  a  beggar  to  see  him  run, 
fearing  the  gentleman  might  discover  the  mistake.  The 
same  morning  at  breakfast,  I  made  Louis  my  almoner  ; 
a  woman  and  children  had  been  ejected  from  the  seventh 


"CALAIS-MORALE."  2<J7 

story  of  a  house,  opposite  me.  I  gave  Louis  one  dol- 
lar and  fifty  cents,  to  overtake  and  give  to  her.  He  re- 
turned, and  brought  her  thanks  for  my  last  course  at 
breakfast. 


A  large,  black  cat,  belonging  to  my  landlady's  little 
pet,  Pauhne,  became  attached  to  me.  One  morning  I 
tokl  Louis  to  tell  Marie,  if  she  wished,  I  would  show 
her  how  we  tamed  the  women  in  America.  I  was 
smoking  in  the  office,  where  I  had  been  asked  to 
smoke,  a  mark  of  favor.  I  took  up  this  monster  cat  by 
the  ears,  which  shocked  Marie  so  much  that  she  shed 
tears.  The  cat,  after  this,  tried  to  follow  me  up  stairs, 
and  Pauline  came  crying  through  the  office.  Louis 
told  me  it  was  because  the  cat  belonged  to  her,  and  she 
could  not  endure  to  lose  her  cat's  alieniated  affi3ctions. 
I  told  Louis  to  tell  her  that,  if  she  would  make  friends 
with  me,  I  would  give  her  a  white  cat,  a  white  rat  and 
a  bouquet,  but  that  she  must  kiss  me  when  she  received 
these  things.     This  she  promised  to  do. 

The  next  morning,  I  wrote  to  Vladame  Gribon,  in 
Dieppe,  for  the  cat,  of  which  I  spoke  in  my  account  of 
my  visit  to  that  town. 

I  wrote  to  the  Emperor  on  the  12th  of  October,  and 
got  his  letter  on  the  16th.  I  wrote  to  him  again  that  I 
wished  the  ladys'  petition  to  be  returned  to  me,  as  I 
might  get  money  from  some  other  person  for  them.  If 
he  gave  them  anything,  he  might  see  directions  written 
on  the  paper,  to  send  it  to  James  Calder,  Liverpool, 
England.  And  I  added  a  verse  from  the  Bible  to  this 
letter: 


268  "■  CALAIS-MORALE." 

''The  king  that  faithfully  judgeth  the  poor,  his  king- 
dom shall  be  established  forever." 

Galignani's  messengers  keeps  the  run  of  the  Royal 
family,  and  nearly  every  day  states  where  they  are,  their 
trips,  &c.  The  day  after  the  receipt  of  my  letter,  the 
Emperor  ordered  everything  in  pawn-broker's  hands  to 
be  returned  to  the  owners,  and  he  paid  the  amount  of 
all  these  pawns.  I  marked  this  verse  in  my  Bible,  and 
that  I  wrote  on  the  margin,  had  quoted  it  to  him. 

The  Emperor  Joseph,  of  Austria,  paid  Emperor 
Xapoleon  a  visit  about  this  time.  He  gave  him  a  grand 
reception,  and  there  were  present  sixty  thousand  troops, 
ten  thousand  cavelry,  and  five  hundred  thousand  spec- 
tators, in  the  Champs  de  Mars,  outside  of  Paris. 

I  had  crepe  put  on  my  hat. 

Mons.  Yaillant,  who  is  chief  and  head  of  all  officers 
at  receptions,  on  his  letter  enclosing  the  petition,  had  a 
black  wax  seal  as  large  as  a  dollar.  There  were,  I  am 
sure,  more  than  twenty  thousand  persons  who  had  fresh 
crepe  on  their  hats. 


I  have  not  mentioned  the  eighteen  negroes  (each 
time  and  place  a  different  one)  that  were  seated  near  me 
at  the  Cathdrals  Madeline  and  St.  Rock,  on  Rue  St. 
Honors  for  nine  consecutive  Sundays,  as  I  visited  each 
of  these  Eglises  one  time  each  Sabbath. 


Your  Majesty,  or  the  Prince  Imperial,  might  honor 
and  oblige  me  by  sending  something  by  which  I  might 
know  that  my  imagination  did  not  run  away  with  my 
judgment,  for  three  months,  in  Paris. 


'269 

I  will  ever  praj  that  you  aiay  enjoy  that  peace  and 
prosperity  which  Solomon  says  is  set  over  against  adver- 
sity, to  the  end  that  man  should  find  nothing  after  him. 

Your  Majesty's  face,  which  I  so  delightedly  scanned 
in  the  picture  galleries  of  Versailles,  indicated  that  you 
will  pardon  me  for  addressing  you. 

With  high  respect,  I  am.  yours  truly, 

^v^L  II.  WESSON. 

[answered  by  telegraph.] 


Monsieur  Melot  came  in,  excited,  to  my  dinner  table 
and  said  that  the  Emperor  was  hurt,  as  a  pair  of  horses 
had  run  away  with  one  of  the  Royal  carriages,  and  had 
dashed  through  one  of  the  large  show-windows  on  that 
f.treet,  into  a  store. 

It  Tvas  easy  to  distinguish  the  ditierent  grades  of 
royalty  in  carriages  on  the  streets,  which  fact,  my  well- 
informed  interpreter,  the  Viennese,  had  frequently 
pointed  out  to  me.  It  was  by  the  style  and  width  of 
the  gold  bands  on  the  bats  of  the  carriage  drivers.  As 
usual,  I  never  showed  or  evinced  any  curiosity  about 
anything,  but  quietly  dispatched  ray  dinner  and  waited 
for  the  I'lme  messenger  to  come,  and  then  I  knew  I  should 
hear  the  trutb  about  the  thing. 

This  husband  of  Madame  Melot  made  his  appearance 
only  three  times  in  my  dining  room  in  the  three  months 
I  w^as  his  guest.  The  first  time  after  I  had  procured  the 
white  rat  for  his  daughter  Pauline. 


He  positively  forbid  cards,  even  in  private  rooms  for 
amusement ;  but  furnished  free  billiard  tables,  and  many 


270  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

gymnastic  and  innocent  amusements,  and  kept  a  large 
open  carriage  for  daily  excursions  to  the  curiosities  of 
the  country.  He  furnished  lunch  to  all,  at  the  cost  of 
one  shilling  to  each  person.  Amongst  the  points  of  in- 
terest near  this  watering  place,  was  the  grand  water-cure 
establishment,  newly  erected  for  the  aristocracy  of  Eng- 
land, but  not  used,  as  the  owner  placarded  hand-bills  on 
its  walls,  saying  :  he  could  not  give  it  his  attention,  as 
he  had  then  a  noted  establishment  for  the  people  in  sight 
of  these  high  lands,  that  overflowed  six  months  ahead 
with  the  seekers  of  its  "  cure  all." 

The  owner  was  an  incurable,  under  "DresnitzJ  of 
Germany."  As  a  proper  return,  he  and  his  wife  had 
devoted  their  Jife  to  the  cure  of  the  incurables.  Near 
by  was  the  site  of  Arkwright's  first  cotton-mill,  the  seat 
of  "Florence  i^ightingale,"  also  the  country  seat  of  the 
Duke  of  Devonshire,  with  its  waterfalls  and  manufac- 
tured trees. 


The  picture  of  the  two  "  blue  bull-dogs,"  with  white 
hairs  on  their  faces,  I  took  to  be  a  fancy,  or  myth,  as 
I  had  neither  seen  nor  heard  of  animals  in  the  canine 
race  of  that  species  ;  but,  the  next  morning,  as  I  ate  my 
breakfast,  alive  pair  of  bull-dogs,  more  natural  and  curi- 
ous than  their  picture,  were  leashed  and  loosed  under 
my  window,  and  the  next  morning,  as  I  was  taking  my 
usual  morning  walk,  near  the  Palace  door,  the  same 
two  bull-dogs  came  to  my  feet,  and  again  returned  to  the 
Palace,  and  I  never  saw  them  again. 

In  the  same  show  window,  on  Rue  St.  Honore,  which 
I  passed  every  morning,  \a  as  a  Samson  and  his  Delilah, 


''  CALAIS-MORALE."  271 

and  the  picture  was  changed  every  morning    until  it 
represented  Samson  shown  of  his  locks. 

Then,  again  there  was  a  picture  of  the  writer  escort- 
ing two  ladies  in  a  court.  I  inquired  into  the  price  of 
this  thing;  it  was  only  six  thousand  francs. 

Then  another  painting  appeared  in  this  window,  of 
two  soldiers  with  muskets,  standing  on  the  shore  of  an 
ocean,  with  pipes  like  one  I  used,  (am  sure  there  was  no- 
others  of  its  kind  in  Paris) — corn-cob. 


PEARLS  OF  THOUGHT. 


The  beast  that  goes  always,  never  needs  blows. 

Good  words  quench  more  than  a  bucketful  of  water. 

An  ill  agreement  is  better  than  a  good  judgment. 

Better  spare,  to  have  of  thine  own,  than  ask  of  other 
men. 

Better  good  afar  off,  than  evil  at  hand. 

Your  pot  broken  seems  better  than  mine  whole. 

Let  an  ill  man  lie  in  thy  straw,   and   he   looks  to  be 
thy  heir. 

By  suppers  more    have  been  killed  than  Galen  ever 
cured. 

While  the  discret  advise,  the  fool  doth  his  business. 

A  mountain  and  a  river  are  good  neighbors. 

Gossips  are  frogs,  they  drink  and  talk. 

Much  spends  the  traveller  more  than  the  abider. 

Prayers  and  provender  hinder  no  journey. 


:272 


Fugitive    Letters, 


;HE  two  hundred  negroes  I  worked  on  Edisto  Island, 
4^^  to  give  a  leader  to  the  completely  destroyed  plant- 
ing interests  of  Sea  Island  cotton,  in  South  Carolina,  and 
the  large  rice  plantation  of  J.  II.  11.,  on  Ashepoo 
river ;  the  Warpohoola  place,  on  Cooper  river ;  the 
Horry  place,  on  Santee  river,  and  several  smaller  farms, 
gave  me  a  knowledge  of  the  South  Carolina  negro  that 
no  other  operation  could  give ;  and,  whilst  I  did  these 
things  against  my  judgment,  and  frequently  quoted  the 
sayings  of  the  Messrs.  Rothchild  ahout  "  unlucky  places 
and  people,"  yet  I  could  never  care  for  money  of  my 
own  enough  to  hide  my  sympathy  for  or  duty  to  my 
fellow  man. 

General  Ilartwell,  who  captured  Charleston,  sought 
me  to  inquire  for  a  good  venture  of  the  kind.  I  never 
spoke  sanguinely  of  the  thing  to  any  person,  but  it  gave 
rise  to  the  following  letter  to  me  from  the  General : 

South  Xatick,  Mass.,  Sept.  23,  1866. 
^y.  H.  Wesson,  Esq.  ; 

Dear  Sir — I  cannot  longer  neglect  to  write  to  you, 
as  I  promised,  f  believe,  to  do.  On  reaching  Edisto 
Island,  I  found  that  August  grass  and  rust  had  injured 
my  cotton  very  materially ;  and,  rather  than  make  my- 
self liable  for  outlays  for  steam  engines,  gins,  &c.,  I 
sold  out  to  one  of  those  associated  with  me,  and  have 


273 

returned  home  and  resumed  my  law  studies,  at  Cam- 
bridge, Mass.,  at  the  Harvard  Law  School  (where  I  shall 
be  glad  to  hear  from  or  see  you). 

The  reports  of  the  cotton  in  Mr.  Seabrook's  (this  was 
my  two  hundred  laborers,  heretofore  mentioned)  and 
Mr.  Whaley'a  were  excellent.  Bailey's  Island  was  said 
to  be  very  fine,  but  I  think  green  seed,  badly  mixed  in, 
and  that  this  fact  will  affect  seriously  the  quality  and 
price  of  the  cotton. 

I  think  that,  generally,  on  Edisto  Island,  crops  worked 
■on  shares  with  the  negroes  are  failures.  Put  in  as  man- 
agers, clever,  skillful  Southern  planters,  who  not  only 
understand  the  negro,  but  know  how  to  get  along  with 
him  as  a  freedman,  [pay  wages  by  the  month,  and  all 
'will  go  well  next  year. 

Yours  truly, 

A.  S.  IIARTWELL. 


MR.  LEES'  LETTER. 


His  letter  is  of  philosophy,  not  money.  lie  is  since 
dead,  and  owned  one  of  the  most  perfectly  arranged 
places  of  ten  acres,  on  the  East  river,  Xew  York,  I 
have  seen  anywhere.  He  tastefully,  permanently  and 
unostentatiously  spent,  in  ten- years,  about  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars  on  this  place.  I  had  the  pleasure 
of  a  day  and  night's  sojourn  with  him,  and  we  occa- 
sionally corresponded.  Mr.  Lees  had  adopted  a  daugh- 
ter of  General  13 recken ridge,  and  two  grandsons  of 
Chief  Justice  Marshall,  all  of  whom  I  had  the  pleas- 

18 


274  "  CALAIS-MORALE.'* 

ure  of  seeing,  when  I  enjoyed  his  royal  or  regal  hospi- 
tality. 

Agency  of  The  Bank  of  California. 

Office  of  Lees  &  Waller,  ^ 

33  Pine  Street,      S 

New  York,  March  20,  1871.  ) 

W.  H.  Wesson,  Esq., 

Summit,  N.  G.  : 

Dear  Sir — -Your  letter  of  the  13th  ultimo,  together 
with  the  lines  from  the  old  book,  of  1828,  was  duly  re- 
ceived, and  I  appreciate  your  kindness  in  sending  them. 
There  are  some  very  beautiful  thoughts  in  them,  and 
also  in  your  letter,  with  some  good  advice.  Diet  and 
good  sleep  are  sure  restoratives  for  care  and  exhaus- 
tion ;  but  content,  alas  !  who  has  it  ?  If  money  would 
bring  it,  then  it  would  not  be  lucre  of  such  a  filthy 
nature,  as  described,  and  would  be  worth  the  while  that 
men  bestow  in  its  acquisition.  I  am  much  moved  by 
your  kind  remarks  about  me,  my  success,  &c.;  but,  take 
care;  don't  judge  too  quickly.  I  count  money-making 
a  very  small  success  in  this  life.  The  man  lives  longest 
who  has  the  best  health  and  the  most  years  of  rational 
enjoyment.  The  Caliph  lived  only  fourteen  days  out 
of  fifty-three  years ;  longer,  perhaps,  than  most  business 
men  live  now. 

Your  friends  here  all  well — Fry,  March,  Price,  &c. 

Shall  I  say  anything  about  cotton  ?  No ;  philoso- 
phers are  above  it. 

Yours,  very  truly, 

J.  LEES. 


**  CiXAIS-MOlALH."  275 

xMRS.  VIRGINIA  PORCHER'S  LETTER. 

In  1865,  before  I  went  to  Charleston,  knowing  the 
extreme  necessites  of  many  of  my  acquaintances,  I 
sent  to  Western  Virginia  and  bought  a  lot  of  butter  to 
present  to  my  friends,  and  acquaintances,  hence  her 
letter  about  this  article. 

One  of  my  daughters  went  to  school  in  Charleston,  to 
the  wife  of  a  former  Governor  of  the  State,  and  I  am 
glad  to  say,  I  heard  no  one  complaining  of  their  poverty, 
or  too  proud  to  perform  any  work  made  necessary  by 
their  want  of  money,  and  I  am  always  more  pleased  to 
help  persons  who  are  willing  to  help  themselves,  and  of 
course  the  ladies  had  no  way  to  earn  any  money,  at  that 
time  of  the  occupation  of  Charleston  by  the  troops  of 
the  Federals.  The  streets,  too,  were  black  with  negroes, 
and  small-pox  more  prevalent  than  I  ever  knew  the 
measles  to  be  in  any  city : 

Thursday  Morning. 

Thank  you,  my  dear  Mr.  Wesson,  for  your  kind  re- 
membrance of  us  yesterday.  I  had  just  been  wishing, 
in  the  morning,  for  some  nice  butter,  and  did  not  fancy 
that  we  got  from  the  grocery  at  all.  That  you  sent  us 
is  delicious,  and  makes  anything  nice,  and  the  little 
bucket  is  a  decided  acquisition  to  my  housekeeping 
articles.  Like  all  Virginia  ladies,  I  know  how  to  ap- 
preciate nice  sweet  butter,  and  we  see  very  little  of  it  in 
Charleston.  Sincerely  yours, 

V.  PORCHER. 
Mr.  Wm.  Wesson. 


276 

Chester,  S.  C,  March  13th,  1865. 
Mr.  Wesson  : 

Bear  Sir — Mother  received  jour  letter  yesterday,  and 
according  to  your  request,  I  will  try  and  give  you  some 
description  of  the  destruction  of  Columbia,  as  we  have 
just  seen  a  friend  from  there,  whose  truthfulness  we  can 
rely  on.  Columbia  is  almost  in  ruins;  eighty-five 
•squares  of  it  being  burnt.  There  is  not  a  house  left 
■standing  on  Main  Street,  and  almost  every  family  have 
had  their  silver  and  provisions  taken  from  them.  A 
great  many  wagons  have  been  sent  from  this  place  with 
provisions  for  the  women  and  children.  The  suffering 
in  that  place  is  fearful  ;  many  families  are  taking  refuge 
under  the  brick  walls  in  the  burnt  district,  and  not  hav- 
ing even  a  blanket  to  cover  them.  What  a  wicked  foe 
we  have  to  contend  with. 

The  people  in  Winnsboro  fared  a  little  better.  There 
were  about  a  dozen  houses  burnt  in  the  neighborhood  of 
the  depot,  and  a  great  many  families  lost  their  silver, 
but  saved  their  provisions.  The  enemy  came  within 
•eight  miles  of  this  place,  but  an  All- Wise  Providence 
protected  ns,  and  turned  them  a  different  road.  They 
marched  round  and  made  their  appearence  in  Lancas- 
ter. For  more  than  a  week  we  suffered  terrible  anxiety 
•of  mind,  not  knowing  what  would  be  our  fate.  The 
cars  do  not  proceed  further  than  this  place,  the  road  be- 
ing cut  between  here  and  Blackstocks,  and  I  hear  of  no 
prospect  of  its  being  mended  for  a  month  yet.  A  great 
many  gentlemen  have  gone  to  Columbia,  in  wagons,  to 
see  about  their  families;  and  some  are  going  to  venture 
to  pay  Charleston  a  visit ;  rather  a  risk  at  present,  as 
the  city   is  strongly  garrisoned  by  negro  troops.     W"e 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  277 

have  vacant  rooms  now,  and  will  be  happy  to  see  you, 

whenever  you  can  find  it  convenient  to  come. 

I  hope  the  young  h\dies  are  w^ell;  do  give  our  love  to 

them.     Mother  sends  her  kind  regard  to  you,  and  will 

take  good  care  of  the  flour,  as  soon  as  Mr.  Roland  sends 

it.     Your  little  articles  are  all  safe  ;    we  buried  your 

watch  with  our  silver.     Hoping  to  hear  from  you  soon 

again,  I  am 

Yours  sincerely, 

C.  L.  ROBERTSOX. 


Here,  drop  the  Tear  of  Sympathy. 


0,  ever  thus  from  childhood's  hour, 
I've  seen  my  fondest  hopes  decay  ; 

I  never  had  a  tree  or  flower, 
But  'twas  the  first  to  fade  away. 

I  never  nursed  a  dear  gazelle 

To  glad  me  with  its  soft  grey  eye ; 

But  w^hen  it  came  to  know  me  well. 
To  love  me,  'tvras  sure  to  die. 


Charleston,  S.  C,  March  7,  1866.      ^ 
223  Meeting  Street.  S 

Mr.  Wm.  H.  Wesson  : 

Dear  Sir — I  regret  that  I  must  experience  any  delaj- 
in  seeing  you  about  a  matter  that  is  giving  me  so  much 
concern,  but  I  am  writing  this  while  m  bed,  which  I 
have  felt  too  sick  to  leave  to-day  ;  therefore,  I  will  be 
unable  to  meet  you  at  Messrs.  Williams  <fe  Covert's  at 
three  o'clock,  as  Dr.  Bachman   appointed.     I  will  call 


at  the  hotel  in  the  morning,  early  to-morrow,  say  half- 
past  eight,  if  I  can  see  you  privately  then. 

Dr.  Bachman  has  told  you  all  of  my  great  need,  and 
it  is  useless  that  here  I  should  repeat  it.  lie  tells  me 
that  you  do  not  own  any  houses,  and  a  home  is  what  I 
do  so  much  desire,  for  I  lind  it  impossible  to  pay  rent 
and  have  my  family  supported.  I  am  not  idle  ;  I  work 
hard,  and  do  all  that  a  woman  can,  but  do  not  make 
much.  My  whole  object  is,  either  from  you  or  from 
any  one  in  the  world  I  could  get  it  from,  to  borrow  sev- 
eral thousand  dollars,  for  about  five  or  six  years,  with 
wdiich  to  buy  a  small  house,  and  secure  it  by  bond  and 
mortgage.  At  the  end  of  that  time,  God  may  help  me 
to  pay  for  it,  or  give  it  up,  as  I  could  not  expect  it  as  a 
gift.  I  know  of  a  house  that  I  might  get,  moderately, 
just  now,  if  I  could  only  get  the  money. 

For  God's  sake  lend  your  ear  to  the  widow's  and 
orphans'  cry,  and  I  will  pray  that  it  may  only  be 
'•  bread  cast  upon  the  waters,"  to  return  to  you  "  after 
many  days." 

My  widowed  mother  is  an  invalid,  and,  for  her  sake 
I   struggle   hard ;   for   her   sake,  I  want    a     home   to 
gather  a  few  of  the  comforts  of  life  around  her. 

Dr.  Bachman  knows  it  all,  and  has  cheered  me  by 
telling  how  much  you  do,  and  how  many  you  have  set 
up.  I  have  no  relatives  or  friends  that  I  could  go  to, 
who  could  help  me,  and  I  have  come  to  you,  a  stranger, 
asking  a  great  favor,  but  hoping  much.  I  will  call  at 
half-past  eight  o'clock  to-morrow  morning. 

Very  respectfully  and  gratefully, 

S.  ALICE  MATHEWS. 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  279 

Laurens,  S.  C,  Dec.  11, 1865. 
xMr.  W.  H.  Wesson, 

Charleston,  S.  C: 

Dear  Sir—     *  *  *  *  * 

r.  S. — Mr.  Jones  says  tliat  the  cotton  will  not 
require  any  baling  or  roping ;  it  is  perfecfly  dry  and 
in  order.  I  will  take  this  opportunity  of  adding,  also, 
Mr.  Wesson,  that  you  would  oblige  us  more  by  getting 
my  brother,  Hugh,  a  good  business  situation  than  aught 
'else.  He  spoke  of  writing  to  you  on  the  subject,  and 
has  partly  done  so.  He  is  reading-clerk  to  the  legisla- 
ture at  present. 

Very  truly, 

M.  C.  F. 


This  letter  caused  H.  L.  F.  to  be  on  the  Sea  Islands 
of  South  Carolina  for  years ;  and  for  this  lady,  I  became 
proxy  to  give  her  away,  in  marriage,  to  a  General  in 
fi  noted  church  in  Charleston,  S.  C. 

W.  H.  W. 


Charleston,  South  Carolina,  > 
February  1st,  1866.      ] 
Mr.  Wesson  : 

Dear  Friend — Will  you  come  and  see  me  at  your 
<»arliest  convenience,  and  be  kind  enough  to  overlook 
my  troubling  you  often,  but  I  have  business  with  you^ 
and  if  you  could  come  this  evening,  I  would  be  glad^ 
as  I  will  be  engaged  and  away  to-morrow. 
Very  respectfully, 

E.  L.  HUGHES. 


280 

This  \\^iclow  ladj,  with  three  children,  owned  a 
plantation  on  John's  Island,  South  Carolina,  her  houses- 
were  all  burned,  but  her  negroes  helped  her  during  the- 
war.     She  had  to  go  to  the  alms-house,  in  Charleston,  at 

last. 

W.  H.  W. 


Dear  Mr.  AVesson  : 

Your  letter  is  just  received,  and  I  am  really  obliged 
for  your  kind  interest  in  me.  As  I  cannot  visit  the  city 
at  present,  I  will  endeavor  to  comply  with  your 
request,  as  far  as  I  can,  and  will  send  by  Mr.  Henry 
Jervey,  who  leaves  to-day,  (I  believe ),  an  ambrotype  of 
my  "  dear  "  self,  which  is  considered  very  good.  You 
can  have  the  photograph  taken  from  it,  and  leave  the 
ambrotype  at  Mr.  Cook's.  It  belongs  to  my  aunt.  Miss. 
Bee,  and  she  will  call  there  for  it. 

With  kind  regards  from  us  all, 

I  remain  your  friend, 

c.  A.  a 

p.  S. — You  can  use  your  own  judgment  with  regard 
to  substituting  a  Yankee  photograph  for  mine,  I  leave 
that  entirely  to  you,  feeling  assured  that  it  will  be  all 
rificht. 

AUGUSTA. 


Charleston,  February  9th,  186d. 
Dear  Mr.  Wesson  : 

If  convenient,  do  stop  and  see  me  some  time  to-mor- 
row, as  I  wish  particularly  to  see  you  on  business. 
Father  and  Rosa  are  down  staying  with  me. 


281 

AVith  many  thanks  for  your   continued  kindness  to 
me,  I  remain, 

Your  sincere  and  grateful  friend, 

EUGENIA   HANAHAK 


My  Dear  Mr.  "Wesson  : 

I  send  Marion  to  you,  in  order  to  make  arrangements 
for  taking  the  hands  down  to  the  Island.  If  you  think 
proper,  you  can  give  him  an  order  for  the  provisions 
and  farming  utensils.  The  hands  are  idle  and  may  get 
away  if  kept. 

Yours  respectfully  and  gratefully, 

E.  IIANAHAN. 


Charleston,  December  27th,  1865. 
My  Dear  Mr.  Wesson  : 

I  am  again  compelled  to  trouble  you  with  my  busi- 
ness. I  have  been  endeavoring  to  obtain  money  to 
enable  me  to  purchase  the  necessary  furniture  that  I  am 
compelled  to  have,  but  have  been  unsuccessful,  and 
without  it  I  will  be  unable  to  take  any  boarders.  If 
you  will  be  so  kind  as  to  advance  whatever  you  can 
spare  me,  I  will  return  it  as  soon  as  our  land  is  restored 
to  us,  which  I  understand,  will  be  very  shortly,  as  we 
will  be  compelled  to  mortgage  it,  to  enable  us  to  raise 
money  to  begin  planting. 

Very  respectfully,  your  friend, 

E.  HANAHAN.. 


:282  «  CALAIS-MORALE.' 

Sunday,  December  24th,  1865. 
My  Dear  Mr.  Wesson  : 

I  have  succeeded  in  hiriug  a  very  nice  house,  on  St. 
Philip's  Street,  jS^.  6,  opposite  the  National  School, 
where  we  moved  yesterday,  but  was  compelled  to  pay 
twelve  hundred  dollars  a  year,  which  I  consider  a  very 
high  rent.  The  first  quarter  in  advance,  (three  hundred 
dollars),  I  have  agreed  to  settle  to-morrow.  If  conven- 
ient, you  will  oblige  me  by  letting  me  have  the  amount 
in  the  morning,  as  the  owner  is  to  see  me  at  that  time, 
I  shall  return  it  at  as  early  a  date  as  possible. 
I  remain  your  grateful  friend, 

E.  HANAHAN. 

Mrs  II.  and  daughter  were  ''Fills  de  Regiment." 
This  lady  had  a  large  family  and  an  invalid  husband 
to  support,  (she  was  a  sister  of  "Gunboat  Sue.") 
Of  course  my  hundreds  of  dollars  loaned  her  went  to  the 
"Caterpillars." 

W.  H.  W. 


Sand  Hills,  Oct.  8th,  1877. 
Mr.  Wesson  : 

Mi/  Good  Friend — Your  letter,  containing  that  good 
-advice,  came  safely  to  hand,  and  was  deeply  appreciated 
by  me. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  1st  of  October,  I  sat  down 
and  wrote  you  a  long  letter;  but  it  was  doomed  never 
to  reach  its  destination.  When  I  retired  that  night,  I 
placed  it  under  my  desk.  Before  one  o'clock  next 
morning,  we  were  out  in  the  yard,  under  the  trees,  with, 
out  a  shelter.     My  little  girl,  fortunately  for  our  lives, 


283 

awoke  her  fVither  out  of  a  sound  sleep.  On  inciting  up, 
he  found  the  house  enveloped  in  ilamcs,  and  after  using 
every  effort  to  extinguish  it,  in  less  time  than  T  can 
mention,  the  fine  old  family  mansion,  the  old  home- 
stead, with  about  three  thousand  dollars  worth  of  hand- 
some furniture,  was  a  heap  of  ashes. 

Oh  !  Mr.  Wesson,  I  never  witnessed  such  a  scene  in 
my  life,  and  hope  never  to  see  another ;  all  of  the  family 
half  clad,  trying  to  save  the  house,  but  it  w^as  useless  to 
try. 

My  little  girl,  not  two  years  old,  behaved  like  a  little 
woman  ;  she  sat  up  on  her  bed  under  the  trees,  and  re- 
mained perfectly  quiet,  while  we  worked  to  save  our 
clothing  ;  only  crying  out  every  now  and  then  for  her 
doll,  which  we  found  under  a  burning  pine  tree,  con- 
sumed all  to  the  china  head  and  limbs.  If  she  had  been 
spoiled,  like  some  children,  we  would  not  have  been 
able  to  do  anything.  I  could  not  help  thinking,  if  you 
had  seen  me  on  that  occasion,  when  nearly  every  one 
lost  their  presence  of  mind,  you  would  not  have  thought 
me  deficient  in  energy.  While  Mr.  G.  wastrjing  with 
the  other  members  of  the  family  to  extinguish  the 
flames,  I  worked  alone;  moved  heavy  trunks  all  by 
myself  through  the  heaviest  sand.  I  went  on,  until,  I 
saved  all  our  clothing.  Then  we  were  both  exhausted 
and  the  house  fell  in.  We  did  not  save  even  a  chair 
to  sit  on.  I  have  felt  a  presentiment  for  some  time 
hanging  over  us,  of  impending  trouble,  hence  the  cause 
of  that  letter  to  you.  I  hate  to  write  gloomy  letters, 
and  have  tried,  ever  since  I  have  been  married,  to  make 
my  ends  meet.  In  five  years,  I  have  only  cost  my  hus- 
band a  doctor's  bill  of  seventy  dollars ;  all  clothing  I 
have  bought  from  mv  own  exertions.     I  have  written  to 


284  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

Dr.  Harrold,  to  try  and  make  up  a  sum  for  us,  among- 
his  congregation  in  Tallahassee,  to  help  us  to  make  a 
start  in  life.  If  ever  so  little,  it  will  be  a  help.  We- 
have  now  no  home,  and  are  staying  in  a  log-house  for 
the  present,  without  a  bed-stead  to  lie  on,  or  chair  to- 
sit  on  ;  and  yet,  I  feel  happier  than  I  have  done  for  some 
time.  I  have  an  abiding  faith  in  God's  providence,  that 
I  will  never  starve.  If  we  can  only  raise  one  or  two 
hundred  dollars,  Percy  will  plant  corn,  which  always  de- 
mands a  high  price  out  here.  I  intend  to  write  to  my 
friends  in  the  North,  to  help  me  in  our  distress.  I  wil! 
be  very  much  obliged  to  you,  Mr.  Wesson,  if  you  would 
take  the  picture  on  to  England  with  you  ;  do  what  you 
think  best  with  it ;  father  has  it  in  his  parlor  in  Summer- 
ville.  He  writes  that  he  has  lost  his  crop  by  the  cater- 
pillars, so  have  all  on  the  island;  so  lean  not  expect 
much  of  them.  I  know  that  the  "  Lord  loveth  those 
whom  he  chasteneth,"  and  this  is  my  consolation.  I 
nearly  killed  myself  the  night  of  the  fire,  by  my  exer- 
tion. My  muscles  were  so  sprained,  I  could  hardly  walk 
for  days  afterwards.  There  were  live  buildings  on  fire 
at  one  time.  Hoping  to  hear  soon,  believe  me,  your 
friend. 

SUE  L.   GUERARD. 


Cedar  Grotb,  Jan.  1st,  1877. 
xMr.  W.  H.  Wesson  : 

Dear  Sir — ^Your  letter,  with  enclosed  check,  came 
safe  to  hand,  for  which  please  receive  my  grateful 
thanks,  and  will  look  upon  it  as  a  Christmas  ofiering.  I 
am  now  trying  my  best  to  make  arrangements  to  start 
the    commissary,  <fec.     If   I   succeed,  will   attribute  my 


285 

suceesa  to  your  interest  in  my  behalf.  You  will  remem- 
ber, I  have  always  had  a  great  opinion  of  your  good 
luck.  I  hope,  by  the  time  I  hear  from  you  again,  I 
will  have  the  store  in  operation.  Mr.  G.  joins  me  in 
kind  regards.  We  are  now  living  on  the  old  home- 
stead, fifteen  miles  from  Summervillc.  Hope  you  will 
excuse  this ;  it  is  so  cold,  I  can  scarcely  write.  We  have 
just  heard  of  the  death  of  Mrs.  W.  C.  Bee,  on  Christ- 
mas Eve,  but  have  not  learned  the  particulars.  Direct 
your  next  letter  as  before ;  care  of  Mr.  C.  Vose. 
Your  sincere  friend, 

SUE  L.   GUERARD. 


Darlington,  South  Carolina, 
Januarv  17th,  1866. 
Mr.  Wm.  II.  Wesson  : 

Dear  Sir — We  have  just  received  a  letter  from  our 
friend,  Miss  Bissell,  informing  us  of  your  plans  regargl- 
ing  vour  "  Fills  des  Regiment,"  and  of  your  request,  that 
we  should  have  two  photographs  taken  and  sent  to  you. 
There  happens  to  be  a  photographist  in  the  village  at 
this  time.  (I  don't  know^  whether  he  is  a  good  one  or 
not.)  We  would  cheerfully  comply  wnth  your  request  ; 
have  ours  taken  and  sent  to  you,  but,  unfortunately, 
neither  of  us  possess  the  means  to  have  it  done  ;  we 
have  not  one  cent  in  the  world,  and  I  have  written  to  tell 
you  this,  so  that  you  may  know  the  reason  of  your  not 
receiving  them.  We  w^ould  send  ambrotypes,  to  be 
copied,  but  have  none. 

I  wish  we  were  all  back  in  dear,  old  Charleston;  we 
ifind  it  pretty  hard  to  get  along  up  here. 

We  have  lost  evervthing  in  the  world,  and  are  re- 


286  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

duced  to  the  necessity  of  doing  something  for  our  sup- 
port ;  I  am  willing  to  work,  and  would  gladly  do  what- 
ever I  could  get,  but  it  is  a  hard  matter  up  here  to  find 
anything  to  do  ;  whereas,  I  think  if  I  were  in  the  city, 
I  might  find  employment  of  some  sort.  However,  I 
trust  in  God,  and  live  with  the  hope  of  a  better  time 
coming. 

With  kind  wishes  for  your  health  and  happiness, 

I  am  yours,  truly, 

C.  Y.  C. 

p.  S. — Hattie  expects  soon  to  visit  the  city,  and  will 
be  glad  to  see  you  ;  she  will  be  at  Mrs.  Bisaells. 


Charleston,  S.  C,  Feb.  13,  1866. 
Mr.  W.  H.  Wesson  ; 

Your  letter  was  delayed  until  only  a  few  days  ago, 
when  I  went,  as  you  requested,  to  Mr.  Cook's,  and  had 
two  photographs  taken,  which,  he  says,  will  be  finished 
by  this  afternoon.  I  am  sorry  1  did  not  get  your  letter 
before  ;  but,  if  it  is  not  too  late  to  answer  your  purpose, 
I  will  leave  them  with  him  until  you  call  for  them.  I 
would  prefer  your  keeping  them  for  yourself,  as  I  am 
quite  flattered  you  should  care  about  them ;  but  a  Yan- 
kee beau  would  be  quite  a  novelty  to  me,  as  I  have  had 
very  little  experience  of  their  attentions.  I  will  be 
happy  to  see  you  whenever  you  have  leisure  to  call.  I 
am  living  in  Aikin's  Row,  No.  2. 

Your  friend, 

MARY  HAZLEHURST. 


"  CALAIS-MORALE."  28T 

Charleston,  S.  C,  June  12,  1865. 
Mr.  Wesson  : 

Dear  Sir — I  was  told  you  had  a  pile  of  two-dollar 
bills,  and  could  accommodate  friends  in  changing  some- 
money  up.  I  have  been  trying  to  change  this  twenty- 
dollar  bill,  and  have  not  succeeded.  Can  I  trespass 
on  you  to  break  it  up,  any  way,  for  me  ?  Just  send  it 
up,  and  give  it  to  the  girl,  yourself  She  has  promised 
to  bring  it  safe. 

Yours  respectfully, 

M.  A.  BARNWELL. 


THE  RARE  BIRD,  OR  EAGLE. 


The  eagle  is  a  regal,  nay,  a  royal  bird ; 
His  cry  terrific,  and  is  seldom lieard, 
His  flight  is  eccentric,  and  nearest  the  sun, 
I'll  pass  the  Pha3nix  'ere  the  race  is  run. 

There  are  men,  like  the  Phoenix,  come  to  time. 
Out  of  the  ashes  of  men  w^ho  are  sublime  ; 
Blaze  like  the  comet,  and  wander  alone  ; 
Rest  only  on  eyries,  or  mountains  of  stone. 

They  plunge  into  ether— pass  on  with  a  rush  ; 
CoHide  with  their  like,  and  give  others  a  push; 
They  n'er  push  down,  but  always  look  up  ; 
To  those  who  are  down  ;  to  the  thirsty  a  cup 

Of  sweet  water — not  the  one  that  betrays; 
The  cup  **  that  moveth  "  they  n'er  do  praise. 
Like  the  eagle,  do  not  herd  with  the  mass. 
Assume  their  habits,  or  look  through  their  glass  ; 
But,  in  this  w^orld's  opinion,  as  rare  birds  pass. 


.288  "  CALAIS-MORALE." 

Conclusion 


^  i'^HE  ladies  being  the  flowers  in  Calias  Morale,  my 
%.^^  assistants  to  correcting  manuscript ;  and  at  church 
and  on  the  streets,  with  silent  language  more  ancient  and 
eloquent  than  the  verbal,  have  encouraged  me  to  per- 
severe under  the  most  adverse  circumstances.  Indeed, 
I  owe  all  to  the  ladies ;  without  them,  this  book  would 
neither  have  been  written  or  published. 

The  most  of  these  ladies  are  strangers  to  me,  jqI  the 
language  of  the  heart  is  never  misunderstood.  I  prac- 
tised De  Israeli's  Language  in  Paris  ;  indeed  it  is  the 
natural  language  of  all  mankind,  the  eloquence  of  which 
frequently  caused  tears  to  trace  my  cheeks,  which  no 
verbal  language  has  yet  effected  ;  and  on  last  Sabbath 
day,  February,  1882,  in  three  churches  in  the  city  of 
Eichmond,  three  silent  discourses  by  ladies,  that  were  so 
sympathetic  as  to  loose  the  fountain  of  my  tears,  and 
to  overpay  me  for  all  the  work,  labor  and  vexation  I 
have  had  in  compiling  this  book ;  and  as  to  money,  ex- 
cept for  the  good  that  may  or  can  be  done  with  it,  ^tis 
not  my  object.  I  have  positive  faith  that  the  ladies  will 
cause  it  produce  all  the  honor  and  money  it  is  worth, 
and  to  them  I  leave  it. 

Don  Quixote  said :  "  A  Knight  without  ladies  was 
like  a  tree  without  leaves."  Were  I  king,  I  would  feed 
the  dear  creatures  on  butter  and  honey,  as  the  child  ^as 
fed:  (See  Isaiah;  chap,  vii;  verse,  15),  perhaps,  give 
them  grapes  and  fruits  for  desert.  With  this  diet,  I 
have  no  doubt,  they  could  m.ore  easily  subdue  the  ani- 
mal, man  ;  perhaps,  tame  him  to  better  manners.  Any- 
how, I  shall  dedicate  my  book  to  a  Lady,  and  hope  in  a 
Monthly  Magazine  to  more  fully  develope  some  of  my 
stories,  which  the  pages  of  this  book  proscribed.  In 
this  magazine,  the  ladies  may  find  time  to  ofler  some 
things  that  their  more  refined  taste  can  do — if  they  imlL 
I  cheerfully  leave  all  to  them. 

W.  H.  W. 


